Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, had at one stage warned his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, who led the way on reducing the level of grants, that he might become a hero at home but that he faced being blamed by the rest of Europe for his lack of solidarity.
So, what do you prefer? Being carried shoulder high by swarms of cheering cloggies or having the approbation of some few thousand federast tranzis?
The European Union is willing to accept UK demands that post-Brexit fishing opportunities be divided using a scientific method that reflects the number of fish in UK waters, rather than the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy….
Vry, vry, kind.
Given that we’ve already left they’re having to rather play catch up on the terms of our leaving, aren’t they?
Angela Merkel: UK must live with consequences of weaker ties to EU
It’s almost like we’ve left or summat…..
Jeebus Remoaners, get a grip:
Tourism and travel leaders have expressed disappointment and frustration after it emerged that the UK will not be taking part in an EU-led data-sharing project to reboot tourism as lockdowns lift.
The European commission has launched an app and website that provide travellers with real-time information about coronavirus rules and the status of infections in each European country. A commission spokesman told the Guardian the UK was not included as the government had not asked to be involved.
It’s an app. Onna phone. Which will be used by three and a half people. None of whom actually need that info on an app – even the most vigorous of tourists doesn’t change country more than once a day or so. All of the information will still be available online via Mr. Google anyway. And if you’re the data package to run an app then you’ve the ability to use Mr. Google.
But, you know, Wah, Wah, the UK isn’t joining an EU thingie, aren’t we terrible?
A no deal Brexit it is then:
The European parliament could veto any trade deal between the UK and the European Union that lacks “robust” safeguards to ensure fair competition and strong standards on the environment and workers’ rights, according to a leaked document.
A draft resolution, seen by the Guardian, which will be put to a vote on Friday, underlines the implicit threat to block the EU-UK trade deal. Urging the British government to “revise its negotiation position”, the text states that a level playing field is the “necessary condition for the European parliament to give its consent to a trade agreement with the UK”.
Given that the entire point is to be free of EU regulations on fair competition, workers’ rights and the environment. You know, to return to being a fully sovereign nation where the rules are made by us, for us, and not by some foreign parliament?
“It was a commercial agreement to tie up and stroke a semi-naked man in his underpants with a broom,” the lawyer said.
Imagine the horrors of a Roman Law system where you may only contract for what the State has already decided you may contract for.
Spotter, Arthur C.
We lived the European dream. Will any politician stand up for open borders?
Alberto Alemanno
A piece about freedom of movement from an Italian called Bert the German.
Bletch. Stilton has been enjoyed by cheese-lovers for centuries, and now boasts Protected Designation of Origin status (PDO), which means it can only be produced in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
Huh. I would have imagined that you had to make it in Stilton. Stilton, the town that gave the cheese its name, is in Cambridgeshire. You’re not allowed to make stilton in Stilton.
The EU’s system of designated places of origin means you cannot make Stilton in Stilton.
What other evidence do we need to kill the EU?
Elites have failed us. It is time to create a European republic
And how are you going to pass power to the one group that rules 500 million people without their being the elite?
On Saturday, for the first time in almost 50 years, we observe Europe Day without the United Kingdom as a member state of the European Union.
Nobody in Britain has ever observed Europe Day. Not even in the sense of looking over and pondering what the wogs across the Channel are doing.
Which does rather neatly describe the relationship between the British and the European Union, doesn’t it?
British travellers will be welcome in the EU this summer if coronavirus restrictions are lifted in time, the European Commission said on Wednesday
Brussels is investigating ways to save the summer holidays by encouraging tourism between its member states. More than three quarters of trips made by EU citizens are to other EU countries.
Vera Jourova, a vice-president in the EU executive, called on the bloc’s member states to lift travel bans and border controls thrown up in response to the pandemic “as soon as possible” after it was deemed safe by scientific advice.
She moved to quash fears that Britons might not be able to benefit from EU moves to allow tourism this summer season because of, among other issues, the UK response to Coronavirus….
If nations allow travel then you’ll be allowed to travel. The EU having nothing to do with this as it doesn’t determine the rules about who a nation allows in. But it’s very nice of them to say that if they do they do, isn’t it?
For if they hadn’t said something then we’d all be wondering what the EU was for, wouldn’t we?
The question being posed by events is whether there is enough of a sense of kinship among EU citizens for national governments to back the most radical of the burden-sharing plans proposed to rebuild the eurozone economy as one.
European has not much more emotional resonance as a self-description than “earthling” does.
We’re back with Adam Smith and the I bruise my finger and think it as, if not more, important than hundreds of millions of Chinee dying from some plague or pestilence. Somewhere between “me” and “everyone” my willingness to sacrifice for the sake of others vanishes. It also diminishes all along the spectrum towards that zero point. Me, children (possibly, for one’s own, reverse those two), family, clan, tribe, nation, etc.
Maybe that’s not the way it should be but that’s the way it is. And “fellow citizen of the European Union” as a motivator for sacrifice doesn’t really carry much weight.
Therefore, no.
Despite the warnings, the eurogroup of finance ministers could not agree on a common approach on providing credit for poorer countries or whether to share borrowing costs.
Italy, Spain, France and six others are demanding that the EU issue bonds to share the debt burden of recovery between wealthier countries in northern Europe and more indebted, often poorer, countries in the south.
Poor people in Germany must pay taxes to pay the salaries of very much richer bureaucrats in France, Spain and Italy.
Because those bureaucrats can’t squeeze any more money out of their own peons without being hung from the nearest lamppost.
All Hail European union!
To ensure that all EU countries can do what is necessary to fight the economic fallout of the pandemic, the fiscal costs of this crisis must be shared.
If all countries are being hit by the same problem then why must the fiscal burden be shared? If there were an asymmetry then sure, the better off – or more lightly hit – might well consider aiding the worse off. But if it’s the same for all then why run it through the centre?
Lucas Guttenberg
Deputy Director, Jacques Delors Centre
Ahhh…
The European Union has weathered the storms of eurozone bailouts, the migration crisis and Brexit, but some fear coronavirus could be even more destructive.
In a rare intervention Jacques Delors, the former European commission president who helped build the modern EU, broke his silence last weekend to warn that lack of solidarity posed “a mortal danger to the European Union”.
There’s a silver lining to every cloud then….
The largest group in the European parliament has urged the UK government to do the “responsible thing” and extend the Brexit transition period, as coronavirus plays havoc with the timetable for an EU-UK deal.
The centre-right European People’s party (EPP), which unites the parties of 11 EU leaders, including Angela Merkel and Leo Varadkar, issued a statement on Monday calling on the government to extend the Brexit transition beyond the end of the year.
Christophe Hansen, a MEP from Luxembourg who sits on the European parliament’s international trade committee, said: “Under these extraordinary circumstances, I cannot see how the UK government would choose to expose itself to the double whammy of the coronavirus and the exit from the EU single market, which will inevitably add to the disruption, deal or no deal.
Once the pass is sold then there will always be another extraordinary crisis, won’t there?
EU project in ‘mortal danger’ if Italy and Spain are abandoned
Abandon them then and let’s get this horror of the European Project aborted before it comes to full term. For our being out of it isn’t enough, it needs to be dead.
Britain will have to guarantee “uniform implementation” of Brussels’s state subsidy rules while the European court of justice will hand down rulings to British courts, under the EU’s vision of the future relationship with the UK.
That’s a deal breaker right there. P is sovereign, not the courts or the law or a treaty of J Foreigner. P is.
With coronavirus, the government must extend the Brexit transition period
Lisa Nandy
Sigh:
So first, we must agree with the EU to extend the Brexit transition period. Our businesses and our communities cannot cope with more uncertainty during this outbreak. British companies who trade with the EU do not know what terms they’ll be trading on in 10 months’ time. Add to this the falling demand and disruption created by coronavirus and it is reasonable to expect many businesses will not survive. The government has boxed itself into a corner by legislating to end the transition period in December come what may. It now faces a direct choice between narrow partisan ideology and the interests of the nation.
So, to reduce uncertainty you wish to extend the period of uncertainty?
Boris Johnson is preparing to reject EU demands to guarantee that the UK will continue to be bound by European human rights laws once the country becomes fully independent, The Telegraph can disclose.
This newspaper understands that British negotiators will refuse to accept proposed clauses in a post-Brexit trade agreement that would require the UK to remain signed up to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) – leaving the door open to break away from the treaty as soon as next year.
The connection between human rights and the voluntary exchange of cauliflowers does seem a little loose, doesn’t it? Perhaps human rights might be dealt with in some treaty about human rights, leaving trade issues for a trade treaty?