European union

The EU Ambassador to the UK has responded to questions about the European Court of Justice's 's role in Northern Ireland. This week in a move to break the deadlock over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the EU proposed to slash red tape and cut the majority of checks on British goods crossing into Northern Ireland. However, the EU's proposals made no mention of the EU court's oversight of the protocol. Speaking on Chopper's Politics podcast, which you can listen to on the audio player above, João Vale de Almeida said "if Northern Ireland is to remain and to continue to have access to our single market for goods, the European Court of Justice needs to be the ultimate jurisdiction. There is no way around that." "We are talking about the internal market for goods and we are talking about the Northern Ireland Territory. We are not talking about the European Court of Justice having jurisdiction over the entirety of the regime of Law of the EU, neither on the entirety of the territory …

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Judges of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Tuesday recessed proceedings in a case to decide which has primacy — the Polish constitution or the law of the European Union. The Constitutional Tribunal said it would take up the question again on Sept. 22. Proceedings started in July and then were repeatedly put off. The court reopened them on Tuesday, but a civic rights official made a motion to exclude a judge who is a government loyalist. The court panel announced a three-week recess while it considers the motion. The ruling, when it eventually comes, is seen as critical to the country's future relationship with the rest of the bloc. Poland's prime minister had asked the court — dominated by ruling party loyalists — to make the judgment amid a larger conflict over systematic changes to the court system in Poland, which the EU views as a violation of democratic norms. If the court rules against the Polish government, the EU Court of Justice will be able to force …

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Facebook will today unveil plans for a major expansion of its London operations in another big boost to the UK’s credentials as a hub for global technology companies. Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will tell the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference that the social media giant plans to hire 500 more staff in the UK, increasing its headcount by 50 per cent to more than 1,500. Facebook is preparing to move into spacious new offices in central London’s Fitzrovia district next year, one of several big moves planned by Silicon’s Valley’s best known names to bolster their presence in the UK. Last week, Google revealed that it will open a new London head office that will result in 3,000 new British jobs by 2020. Apple also plans to set up a new UK headquarters in the redeveloped Battersea Power Station in the capital, while Amazon has said since the Brexit vote that it plans to create an extra 1,000 British jobs. The …

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In the comments below György Habsburg’s first interview to French media in 2021 as Hungary’s new ambassador to France, some readers demonstrated how far back the bad blood between France and Hungary went by bringing up the memory of Marie-Antoinette. The hated wife of Louis XVI, who was executed in 1793 during the terror that followed the French Revolution, was the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, the rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire - and, as Habsburgs - György’s distant relative. But despite the fact that it may have been the distant relatives of those Le Figaro readers that relieved Marie-Antoinette of her head, György Habsburg does not share their enmity. “Thank God we have a free Europe, everyone has the right to their own opinion,” he told Euronews. Anyway, he said, he received far fewer negative comments below his first appearance in the French press than he generally does when he speaks to the media in Austria, the seat of the …

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The European Union's top court has begun its long-awaited hearings looking at the bloc's so-called rule of law mechanism. Last December, all 27 member states agreed to link respect for the rule of law to the access of EU funds. Hungary and Poland only agreed to this if they were allowed to challenge this new system at the Luxembourg-based court. The new legal measure, or rule of law mechanism as it is known, is supposed to enable the suspension of EU funds for countries proven to be misusing them. As Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield MEP explains though, this conditionality is only related to the misuse of European money, not to media freedom or the concentration of power. "The recovery fund concern is about how European money is used. It's very simple. Good management of public money -- it's European money," Delbos-Corfield told Euronews. "The fact that all European member states accept together to be in solidarity and those that have more to give to those who have less, …

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It was Mood Indigo, or maybe Song Sung Blue as Maros Sefcovic strode into the cavernous aircraft hanger-style venue of the EU press conference room. Resplendent in a riot of azure - sky-blue tie and navy jacket against a harebell-blue backdrop - the European Commission vice-president bounded in, fizzing with self-importance to deliver an eagerly awaited speech. So eagerly awaited in fact, that some of the key players had struggled to contain themselves at all. On Saturday night, Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, had started a late-night Twitter spat with Brexit negotiator David Frost. “Does UKG actually want an agreed way forward or a further breakdown in relations?”, he tweeted. Shots fired, as they say. It took Frost an hour to reply, but at half-past midnight (one assumes after stumbling indoors, kebab in hand) he’d countered with sass levels usually reserved for Rebecca Vardy’s spats with Colleen Rooney . “I prefer not to do negotiations …

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Britain could compromise over the European Court of Justice's role in Northern Ireland after Lord Frost suggested he would enter negotiations with Brussels without "red lines". In a bid to finally break the deadlock over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the EU yesterday proposed to slash red tape and cut the majority of checks on British goods crossing into Northern Ireland. Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice president, also announced in Brussels that it would ease food standard rules and change its laws to ensure that British medicines can still be sent to Northern Ireland. Under its proposals, checks on food and plant products would be reduced by up to 80 per cent, a looming ban on British chilled meats would end, and customs paperwork would be cut in half. However, the EU's proposals made no mention of the EU court's oversight of the protocol, which Mr Sefcovic suggested was a secondary issue and had been raised only "once" in his discussions with Northern …

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The EU's four-pronged Brexit plan on Northern Ireland has been revealed and is set to resolve the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Among the proposals will be the removal of nearly 80 per cent of checks needed for meat and plants being shipped to Northern Ireland and the continuation of British pharmaceutical firms supplying cheap generic medicines to Northern Ireland. However, one of the main issues surrounding the new deal has been the EU’s refusal to strip European judges of their role in the province, which the Brexit Minister Lord Frost has repeatedly called to be replaced with international arbitration modelled on the Brexit trade deal. Despite this, Britain could compromise over the European Court of Justice's role in Northern Ireland after Lord Frost suggested he would enter negotiations with Brussels without "red lines". Last night, Government sources acknowledged the EU had "clearly" gone further than the UK had expected, with the two sides now expected to …

[Read more...] about ‘Northern Ireland was always going to be a compromise’: Readers on the NI protocol

Lord Frost will demand that Brussels allows the free movement of British pets in Northern Ireland as it emerged that "ferret wars" is the latest front in Britain's battle with the EU over a new Brexit deal . The European Commission has offered to dramatically reduce Irish Sea border checks in a bid to break the deadlock over the Northern Ireland Protocol – but not to ease movement of cats, dogs and ferrets, which benefits from the EU pet passport scheme. Northern Ireland continues to follow EU rules on animal health to prevent a hard Irish border. British pet owners face costly and onerous documentary requirements costing more than £110 to travel to the EU and Northern Ireland. On Thursday night, government sources called it a "glaring omission" from the EU's proposals, with one saying: "It should be as easy to get a pet from London to Belfast as it is to get them from London to Glasgow." Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, warned that any new agreement would need to …

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The EU should stop financing the Libyan coast guard, critics said on Friday, after video footage emerged of a Libyan patrol vessel shooting at a boat full of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. The Libyan vessel tried to ram the tiny boat packed full of migrants in an apparent attempt to push it back to the Libyan coast from where it had set off. At least two rounds were fired from automatic weapons , with the bullets sending up spouts of seawater just yards from the small blue boat. The Libyan vessel came within just a few feet of hitting the boat several times. Libya’s coast guard has been accused by humanitarian organisations of pursuing an aggressive interception and push-back policy in a bid to stop migrants and refugees from reaching Europe. "The funding of the so-called Libyan coast guard should cease," said Erasmo Palazzotto, an MP with LEU, a centre-Left Italian party. "The attempt to ram a boat full of migrants and the shots fired at it are …

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