The European Union said it will redouble its efforts to save the Iran nuclear agreement despite what it calls Tehran’s “important breach” of commitments made in the 2015 deal by starting to enrich uranium to new levels.

EU spokesman Peter Stano said that Iran’s actions “will have serious implications when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation.”

Stano said it was in everyone’s interest to rescue the deal and said the 27-nation bloc “will strengthen” its attempts to make sure all parties adhere to the commitments made in the landmark deal.

Iran began enriching uranium on Monday to levels unseen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The decision appeared aimed at increasing Tehran’s leverage during the waning days of US President Donald Trump in office, whose unilateral withdrawal from the atomic accord in 2018 began a series of escalating incidents.

Increasing enrichment at its underground Fordo facility puts Tehran a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the action was “fully reversible” if other partners in the deal fully complied to the agreement, without elaborating any further.

Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of its plans to increase enrichment to 20% last week.

Iran’s decision to begin enriching to 20% purity a decade ago nearly triggered an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, tensions that only abated with the 2015 atomic deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

London’s financial sector started to feel the full effects of Brexit on Monday, the first trading day of 2021, as nearly €6 billion of EU share dealing shifted away from the City to facilities in European capitals.

                                                    <p class="no_name">Trading in equities such as <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_company=Santander" rel="nofollow">Santander</a>, <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_company=Deutsche+Bank" rel="nofollow">Deutsche Bank</a> and <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_company=Total" rel="nofollow">Total</a> moved to EU marketplaces or back to primary exchanges such as the Madrid, Frankfurt and Paris bourses, according to data from Refinitiv - an abrupt change for investors in London who have grown accustomed to trading shares in Europe across borders without restrictions.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Business on London hubs for euro-denominated share trading, including Cboe Europe, Turquoise and Aquis Exchange, shifted to their new EU venues set up late last year to cater for the end of the Brexit transition. The volume amounted to a sixth of all business on exchanges in Europe on Monday.</p>
                                                    <h4 class="crosshead">Liquidity</h4><p class="no_name">“It’s been an extraordinary day. Shifting liquidity is one of the hardest things to do. It’s not ‘Big Bang’ - it’s ‘Bang and It’s Gone’. The City has lost its European share business,” said Alasdair Haynes, chief executive of Aquis Exchange.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Although not the City’s most lucrative business, the departure of the share trading will mean less in tax receipts for the UK government. Mr Haynes also noted that it could encourage companies to list in the EU to benefit from smoother, more active trading conditions.</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                        <p class="no_name">Cboe Europe said 90 per cent of its EU flows, more than €3.3 billion worth of deals, were now in Amsterdam, compared with very little last year. Aquis said “virtually all” euro-denominated share trading had shifted to Paris overnight. Turquoise, controlled by London Stock Exchange Group, also had most of its EU business transition to Amsterdam. Very little business traded on the venues before the transition period ended.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">“All our systems are operating normally and, as expected, the majority of activity in EEA-symbols is now taking place on our Dutch venue, with activity across all our market segments,” said David Howson, president of Cboe Europe, referring to European Economic Area-based stocks.</p>

                                                    <p class="no_name">For decades, London-based trading systems and big investment banks have been at the heart of cross-border share trading, with up to 30 per cent of all EU shares traded across the continent passing through the City.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">But the UK’s trade deal with the EU largely omitted financial services. UK prime minister <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=Boris+Johnson" rel="nofollow">Boris Johnson</a> admitted the agreement had failed to meet his ambitions on the sector. The EU had refused to recognise most of the UK’s regulatory systems as “equivalent” to their own, forcing all euro-denominated business to move back to the bloc.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">With financial services outside the UK-EU trade talks, share trading executives in London expected little from EU regulators and had been prepared for several years to trade as if the UK had left the EU with “no deal”. Mr Haynes said he doubted the EU would grant equivalence in share trading soon, if ever.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Brussels has sought greater oversight of all euro-denominated assets and is keen to reduce its reliance on the City of London for finance, an economic activity it views as strategically important for the bloc.</p>
                                                    <h4 class="crosshead">Standards</h4><p class="no_name">Financial services lobby groups on both sides have urged the EU and UK to quickly build on the trade deal and agree common supervisory standards. The two sides are trying to draft a memorandum of understanding on future co-operation on financial services by the end of March, although it would not have the same legal force as an international treaty.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Emphasising that the EU and UK were distinct jurisdictions, EU regulators on Monday also withdrew registration of six UK-based credit rating agencies and four trade repositories - data warehouses that provide authorities with information on derivatives and securities financing trades. EU companies and investors will now have to use EU-based entities. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2021</p>

BRUSSELS — The European Union said Tuesday it would redouble its efforts to save the Iran nuclear agreement despite what it calls Tehran’s “important breach” of commitments made in the 2015 deal by starting to enrich uranium to new levels.

EU spokesman Peter Stano said that Iran’s actions “will have serious implications when it comes to nuclear nonproliferation.” Stano said it was in everyone’s interest to rescue the deal and said the 27-nation bloc “will strengthen” its attempts to make sure all adhere to the commitments made in the landmark deal.

Iran began enriching uranium Monday to levels unseen since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The decision appeared aimed at increasing Tehran’s leverage in the waning days in office for U.S. President Donald Trump, whose unilateral withdrawal from the atomic accord in 2018 began a series of escalating incidents.

Increasing enrichment at its underground Fordo facility puts Tehran a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the action was “fully reversible” if other partners in the deal fully complied too, without elaborating.

Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of its plans to increase enrichment to 20% last week.

Iran’s decision to begin enriching to 20% purity a decade ago nearly triggered an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, tensions that only abated with the 2015 atomic deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

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KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — The palm oil industry is encouraged to come forward for early consultation following new European Union (EU) or United Kingdom (UK) regulatory initiatives on sustainability to minimise the impact of products placed on the EU market.

FratiniVergano lawyer Paolo R. Vergano said the move was critical as the EU aims to pursue legislative initiatives on sustainability in forests, food, farming, land-use and supply chains, which might affect trade and palm oil.

“The engagement should include feeding information; arguments and technical; and commercial and legal positions, both as industry and exporting countries,” he said during the virtual Malaysian Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar (POTS Digital 2021) today.

Hence, he said the measures developed and adopted must be product-neutral, based on transparent, verifiable and existing “science” or information, so as not to be de jure or de facto discriminatory.

Elaborating on the initiatives, the EU-based lawyer said minimising the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products placed on the EU market would promote the consumption of products from deforestation-free supply chains.

“As such, it is clear that this regulatory initiative will likely target palm oil, either intentionally or because of the natural link between palm oil and forests.”

Vergano also said an initiative to improve the corporate governance framework, including the requirement for the food industry to integrate sustainability into corporate strategies, was also expected to be pursued following the European Green Deal and the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy.

Therefore, he said all producing countries should start having one mutual standard that is being recognised by all countries but at the same time must not forgo their own nation’s standard for palm oil.

“There are plenty of tools, both judicial and administrative in nature, that can be used in practising sustainability but it has to be analysed and taken on an individual case basis,” he added. — Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — A nimble push into higher biodiesel blends such as B40 — 40 per cent blend of palm oil-derived biodiesel — by Indonesia and B30 by Malaysia will help to mitigate the negative effects of the European Union’s (EU) lower palm oil demand for biofuel, the Malaysian Biodiesel Association said.

Deputy president Long Tian Ching said palm oil and palm biodiesel producers have to face the fact that exports to the EU would most likely be reduced at an accelerated pace, quicker than the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II implementation.

RED II sets a new and binding renewable energy consumption target of at least 32 per cent for 2030 for the whole of the EU, instead of the previous 20 per cent by 2020 to be attained through individual national targets.

“To counteract these developments, local mandates will have to play a more critical role to sustain the palm oil industry,” he said at the virtual Malaysian Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar 2021 (POTS Digital 2021) today.

He said the association expects the actual exports of palm oil to be used in biofuel would start at a much lower level because member states could set a lower limit.

Besides that, he said, there is a high possibility that member states would phase out high indirect land-use change (ILUC) palm biodiesel even before 2030.

According to RED II (Article 26), a member state’s share of high ILUC-risk biofuels shall not exceed the level of consumption of such fuels in that member state in 2019.

“In aggregate, we estimate total palm biofuel use to be 6.2 million tonnes for the entire EU in 2019. Starting from 2024 till the end of 2030, high ILUC palm biodiesel shall gradually decrease to zero tonne,” he said.

He said some of the EU states have started earlier phase-outs with France’s legislation removing palm oil from a list of permitted biofuels from January 2020 and eliminating related tax advantages.

Long said the country’s law specified that palm oil cannot be considered a biofuel unless producers can guarantee it has been produced under conditions that prevented an indirect increase of greenhouse gas emissions while tax exemptions for other biofuels remain in place.

Meanwhile, he said in October last year, Denmark’s governing parties put forward a law to ban biofuels based on palm oil from being included in the fulfilment of the blending requirement.

Themed “Malaysian Palm Oil — Forging Ahead in the New Norm”, the four-day POTS Digital 2021 which started today is organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC). — Bernama

Europe’s universities, in the European Union and neighbouring countries including the United Kingdom, are pleased to see that an agreement on the EU-UK future relationship has been reached. The European family of universities sees the result as a solid basis to continue and enhance our cooperation.

The European University Association (EUA) and Universities UK International (UUKi) welcome the UK plan to associate to Horizon Europe, which is fundamental to continued international collaboration between universities. However, it is regrettable that the UK does not plan to continue to be part of the Erasmus Programme.

Vivienne Stern, Director, Universities UK International, says:

“UUKi welcomes the deal and is keen to ensure that UK universities will be able to maintain their close ties with their European partners. We look forward to continuing our research collaborations in Horizon Europe. While we are deeply disappointed that no agreement was reached on Erasmus+, we look forward to working with EU partners through the UK’s newly announced Turing Scheme, which will continue to support student exchange.”

The European University Association, representing more than 800 members across the continent, will continue to strive for dialogue and solidarity and for working together to promote research, education, innovation and culture from the Caspian Sea to the North Atlantic. It is time to look ahead in this spirit and use the agreement to secure long-term solutions that keep the UK close to its partners in the EU and in the rest of Europe.

Amanda Crowfoot, Secretary General of the European University Association states:

“The deal brings much needed certainty for cooperation between universities across Europe and their UK partners. The fruits of this cooperation will bear testimony to the fact that knowledge should not know borders. The new insights that we will create about the universe and our societies will foster progress as well as help us in meeting the grand challenges that we are facing together.”

This article was first published on 30 December by EUA.

Washington [US], January 5 (ANI): As tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to spiral downwards, President-elect Joe Biden aims to end the US’ trade war with European allies and work with them to deal with China’s trade practices, said a key official in the Biden administration.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told CNN on Sunday that the new administration recognise China as a serious strategic competitor to the US.

According to South China Morning Post citing CNN, Sullivan also said president-elect Biden would work out the economic differences between the US and its European allies to improve their relations and jointly counter China on multiple fronts, from trade and technology to the military and human rights.

“Our goal is to go out right away and sit down not just on the question of China, but to work out the economic differences that we have so that we can end the multifront trade war that the Trump administration started,” Sullivan said on CNN on Sunday.

Sullivan’s remarks came after China and the European Union wrapped up negotiations on a comprehensive investment agreement last week.

Sullivan said the US would not reverse tariffs with China but would consult partners in Europe and Asia to “bring leverage to bear on China to change its most problematic trade abuses”.

Referring to the US and “like-minded economies”, Sullivan said: “We are confident that we can develop a common agenda on issues where we share deep concerns about China. And it’s not just on trade. It’s on technology. It’s on human rights. It’s on military aggression.”He added, “That will put us in a stronger position to be able to deal with China effectively, in a clear-eyed way and in a way that will ultimately deliver the kind of results that have entirely escaped the Trump administration of the last four years.”Biden in December said that Washington needs to build a coalition of like-minded nations to confront Beijing.

“As we compete with China to hold China’s government accountable for its trade abuses, technology, human rights and other fronts, our position would be much stronger when we build coalitions of like-minded partners and allies that make common cause with us in defence of our shared interests and our shared values,” Biden said following his briefing with national security and foreign policy agency review team members.

Under the Donald Trump administration, ties between the two countries had deteriorated over issues such as human rights violations in Xinjiang, encroachment on the special status of Hong Kong, accusations of unfair trade practices by Beijing, lack of transparency concerning the pandemic and China’s military aggression in various parts of the world. (ANI)