Brexit leader Nigel Farage has said that the UK has “set the standard” for nations gaining independence from the European Union, predicting that with the current divides on the continent between east and west and north and south, the bloc will not even exist in ten years.
The UK finally left the EU’s institutions, with a deal, on December 31st, 2020, four-and-half years after the public voted 52 to 48 per cent to leave the bloc.
Speaking to LBC’s Iain Dale on Monday, Mr Farage rejected the notion that the UK was as “divided” as it was on June 23rd, 2016, pointing out that the actual proportion of Remainers who fully backed the European Project — “who wanted that flag, wanted that anthem, wanted people like [European Commission President Jean Claude] Juncker telling us what we can and can’t do” — was only “tiny”, and that many who voted to stay a member of the bloc did so out of fear of change.
Indeed, successive votes since the referendum — the European Parliament and the national elections — had demonstrated an increasing share of voters backing parties that pledged to deliver a full Brexit, defeating candidates advocating for a second referendum.
“The truth of it is that a very large number of people who voted Remain can now see that actually it’s more than possible for us to sign up to trade deals with the rest of the world, more than possible with a bit of will to come to, in most areas, a reasonable agreement with the EU itself,” Farage said.
The Brexiteer, who has been fighting in the political arena for 27 years for Britain’s emancipation from the bloc, said that those that may still support membership would dwindle further once they realise the power of independence.
Verhofstadt: Brits Chose Brexit to Affirm Their Right to Be Stupid, Next Gen Will Rejoin EU https://t.co/2invKDSRBD
“The point about becoming independent is that democracy becomes vibrant, democracy becomes real. We really will be in charge when we vote in elections of laws that really affect us. I just don’t see that being reversed,” he said.
He added: “The Brexit Wars are over. The bitterness, the division, the agony of four-and-a-half years of much of our establishment doing their best to overturn the democratic will of the people, that is over.”
Even if there were an active campaign to rejoin, there will not be a European Union to rejoin in ten years, Mr Farage predicted.
“Just look at what’s happening in Brussels: you’ve got the Poles and the Hungarians, vetoing the budget. You’ve got a eurozone, which is driving the south into deeper and deeper poverty,” he said, predicting that “at some point, Italy will just have to leave that eurozone”.
“I don’t think they’ll even be a European Union in ten years’ time. I think that we have set the standard.
“I think in a year or two’s time you will see a lot more mainstream opinion across European politics saying, ‘Do you know what? Why don’t we have a Europe of trade, cooperation, and friendship? Why don’t we have a Europe that my parents’ generation thought they were signing up to nearly 50 years ago?’”
Hands up for an attack on workers and migrants (Pic: Number 10 on Flickr)
Tory claims about an approaching glorious future after the trade deal with the European Union (EU) are nonsense.
Boris Johnson’s cheerleaders in the press are trying to bolster such myths.
After the deal was announced the Daily Mail front page claimed, “Get ready for blast off, Britain”. It added, “UK gears up for business boom with Brexit deal done.” Not to be outdone the Daily Express’s headline was “Boris heralds our new ‘golden age’”.
There will be no prosperity on the basis of anything the Tories manage. Whatever the specific effects of the deal, the government has already shown that it wants to impose pay freezes and cuts. It will stand aside as unemployment surges.
Its disastrous handling of coronavirus has hit poorer people hardest.
Rushed
The deal is set to be rushed through parliament on Wednesday, after just one day of debate. Johnson expects to win with a big majority
Johnson was pushed into a deal by fears about the chaotic alternatives without a deal. And the power of the EU extracted numerous concessions from the British government.
The government did not get what it hoped to achieve for the bankers and the hedge fund firms. Even on fishing, which Johnson sought to make a totemic issue, the government backed off from what it claimed to be its “red lines”.
The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO)—an employers’ organisation—claimed any gains were marginal. NFFO chief executive, Barrie Deas, said there was a growing feeling of disappointment and frustration in the industry.
But ultimately Johnson was prioritising political over economic factors. He hopes to pose as a nationalist champion and that the issue of Europe, which has repeatedly split the Tories, can be laid to rest.
But it was opportunistically used by Johnson to win the last general election with the slogan “Get Brexit done”. He may still find the issue is far from finished with years of joint committees and “clarifying” negotiations to come.
If Britain diverges from the EU’s regulations it could face tariffs—payments to export certain goods.
Left
It matters how the left and trade unions now respond.
There must be no backing for a deal that eliminates workers’ freedom of movement. This assault on migrant workers has been scandalously ignored or even supported by far too many on the left.
The deal will also be used by the Tories and the employers to attack workers on the basis of “making Britain more competitive”.
Some Tories and bosses hanker for Britain as “Singapore on Thames” after the break form the EU. There are immediate plans for ten “freeports” with tax concessions to businesses and weaker labour laws.
In the run-up to Christmas, for example, the Financial Times newspaper reported, “The Tories are drawing up plans to ‘turn London into a rival of Singapore’ over shipping registration.”
Altering the tax and regulation regime could be worth £3.7 billion to shipping bosses over three years.
But Labour is set to back Johnson’s deal.
Party leader Keir Starmer announced on Christmas Eve that his party will “accept and vote for” the deal. It’s an extraordinary turnaround from the man who took the lead in seeking to overturn the Brexit vote.
He was happy to undermine Jeremy Corbyn and demand a “people’s vote”. Now he hypocritically shifts.
Statmer does it on the pro-boss basis of avoiding a no deal that will hit “business”. He also believes workers are overwhelmingly supportive of racist ideas about migration and must be lured back to Labour by being as pro-nationalist as the Tories.
Starmer’s decision has faced some opposition.
On Tuesday a statement called for Labour not to fall into “the trap of rallying around this rotten deal”. It added that the deal is “designed to open the door to rampant economic deregulation—a loss of rights and protections for workers, the environment, food standards and many other areas of life”.
But it is supported by only three MPs. And it is the initiative of Another Europe is Possible, the group that helped to pressure Labour into adopting the disastrous policy of supporting a second referendum.
It brings together John McDonnell and the Blairite Lord Adonis.
It is opposition to the deal from the pro-EU side and based on the false premise that the EU is a defender of working class interests.
For years the left failed to change the terms of the debate about the EU. It allowed the issue to be divorced from wider issues.
Nobody should talk about a Brexit deal without saying that we now need a united fight against austerity, unemployment, racism, poverty and climate chaos.
This is urgent whatever the trade arrangements that bosses and their governments agree.
And socialists need to say that we don’t stand for the interests of financiers and corporations. We don’t believe that business must come first or that capitalism equals prosperity.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu hopes to discuss with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the security issues in the region and reforms on the path of Moldova and Ukraine to the EU during an official visit to Kyiv on January 12.
“We want to restore relations, because some work was done at the government level, but at the presidential level there were no meetings at all over these four years, and it is important for us to restore relations. We have many specific questions to which we must find answers. These are the issues of security in the region, and the issue of our way to the European Union, the reforms that we must introduce in order to bring our countries closer to the EU. And, of course, the issue of border delimitation, and the issue of hydroelectric power plants. That is, specific issues,” said Sandu in an interview with DW.
She stressed that it is important for Moldova to have good relations with both Romania and Ukraine.
“In January I will go to Kyiv to meet with Mr. Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, and this is just the beginning,” Sandu said.
As reported, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Diplomatic Advisor to President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva said that the newly elected President of Moldova Maia Sandu plans to pay an official visit to Ukraine on January 12, 2021.
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.
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Breeding yaks is one of the few traditions to make a living. UNDP Eurasia/Danil Usmanov
In 2019, more than 1,300 tourists passed through Sary-Mogol to enjoy amongst other attractions the village’s horse and yak games festival and fair; in 2020, the number dwindled to less than a dozen.
According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) the tourism sector has been one of the biggest economic causalities of the pandemic in Kyrgyzstan.
Villagers in Sary-Mogol are used to long and harsh winters, but this year are looking positively forward to the time when they can welcome tourists back.
Read more here about weathering the winter and the pandemic in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.
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>
Over 80,000 UK-registered .eu websites and related emails stop working due to Brexit
EURid, the registry manager for .eu top-level domains, has suspended more than 80,000 domains held by British nationals or British organisations.
The change came on the first day of the new year, as part of EU rules stating that an .eu domain can only be held by a citizen or organisation located within the European Union.
In 2018, the EU had initially decided that any .eu domain registered by a British national or with a British address would simply be cancelled. The decision angered many British nationals and firms doing business in the EU, as well as EU citizens living in the UK, who threatened to challenge the decision in court.
The EU then amended the rules many times, with the final iteration coming in October 2020. This stated that only the following persons, organisations and undertakings would be eligible to register .eu domain names:
An EU citizen, independent of their place of residence;
A naturalised person who is not an EU citizen and who is a resident of a Member State;
An undertaking that is established in the EU; or
An organisation that is established in the EU, without prejudice to the application of national law.
The EU also ruled that any British .eu domain holder who shifted their domain’s registration address from a UK address to somewhere in the EU would be eligible to retain the domain. Brits who failed to do that would have their domains suspended from 1st January 2021 to 31st March 2021 – as has now happened.
On 1st October 2020, EURid sent out its first Brexit notification to.eu domain registrants residing in the UK, informing them that they would cease to be eligible to own a .eu domain as of 1st January 2021 unless they updateed their registration data prior to Exit Day.
A second notice was sent on 21st December 2020, to all registrants who had not already updated their details.
Finally, on 2nd January 2021, the registry manager delivered its third Brexit notice to UK registrants, telling them that their .eu domain was no longer compliant with the .eu regulatory framework and has been moved to “SUSPENDED” status until 31st March 2021.
According to EURid, a suspended domain can no longer support any service (such as website and email), but its registrar can still reinstate it after updating the registration data.
On 1st April 2021, all .eu domains that are not compliant with the .eu regulatory framework will be moved to ‘WITHDRAWN’. All such domains will be revoked on the 1st January 2022, according to EURid, and will become available for general registration.
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.
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. — Reuters pic
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
