The European Union and United Kingdom are racing to finish a deal on trade before breaking for Christmas, with the two sides moving closer on the outstanding issue of fish.

                                                    <p class="no_name">Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has remained in headquarters in the Berlaymont to try to bring the agreement over the line by Christmas Eve, tic-tacking in phone calls between British prime minister Boris Johnson and EU member states.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Taoiseach Micheál Martin told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne that fish was the final hurdle in the negotiations, and that if a deal was reached today or tomorrow officials would be working on the text on Christmas Day.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">“We’re all on standby,” Mr Martin said. “On balance, given the progress that has been made, there should be a deal, and no-deal would be an appalling shock to the economic system.”</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">The EU has offered to cede 25 per cent of the roughly €650 million worth of fish stocks its boats catch in British waters, an increase of a previous bid position that 18 per cent was the maximum that could be considered.</p>
                                                                                                                                                                                        <p class="no_name">But British negotiators have countered with a demand for 35 per cent, with pelagic fish being treated separately, which would raise fears that Irish fleets that catch mackerel and herring could be disproportionately at risk of losing out.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Officials warn that such percentages are fluid, and intense talks are continuing to try to eke out a landing ground that would allow the negotiators to return home for Christmas Day.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">The fact that the two sides are still locked in negotiations just hours before the Commission buildings should in theory be shut down and locked for the holiday is seen as a sign that both sides believe a deal may be close.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">“They are still talking so things are moving,” an EU diplomat said.</p>

                                                    <p class="no_name">The legal drafting and scrutiny of any deal by member states would also take time and is an additional pressure on the talks.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">All hopes of ratifying the deal through the European Parliament have now been abandoned as not enough time remains, meaning that member states would have to agree to ‘provisionally’ apply the terms from January 1st to avoid having to impose tariffs on trade. The parliament could vote at the end of the month to give its stamp of approval to the deal.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">A deal would avoid the worst damage of a shift to default World Trade Organisation terms, but would still mean barriers to trade between the UK and EU that did not exist before. </p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has warned businesses to expect “some weeks” of disruption to trade passing through Britain and has urged hauliers to opt for direct ferry routes to the continent instead, as the end of the transition period coincides with disruption due to Covid-19.</p>

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The European Union (EU) informed the Government of Armenia about the disbursement of additional € 24 million in grants to support Armenia’s fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The EU’s decision follows a positive assessment on progress in development of a Mid-Term Recovery Plan (MTRP), macroeconomic stability, public financial management and state budget transparency, in the frame of the COVID-19 Resilience Contract signed between the EU and the Government of Armenia, the EU Delegation to Armenia told Armenpress.

As part of the European Union’s € 92 million response package to the COVID-19 pandemic in Armenia, this new disbursement of € 24 million is meant to help Armenia in its fight against the COVID-19 crisis and in strengthening the economic and financial resilience in the country. This EU assistance announced today is an extra support to the recently disbursed Euro 35.6 million of last month and creates additional fiscal space to implement Government healthcare and anti-crisis measures for vulnerable groups and businesses affected by COVID-19.

H.E. Mher Grigoryan, Deputy Prime Minister, said: “We highly appreciate the EU’s support in these difficult times and extend our gratitude for the EU’s constructive and quick response in addition to the last month’s allocation of € 35.6 million. This new allocation is made within the scope of the budget support program signed between the Government of Armenia and the EU in 2020 to fight the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. We firmly believe that it will greatly contribute to Armenia’s recovery from the pandemic, supporting the Government in overcoming the socio-economic hardships resulted by the crisis.”

H.E. Andrea Wiktorin, EU Head of Delegation, said: “The EU and its Member States stand firm in supporting Armenia’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering grant assistance to contribute to Armenia’s efforts to health and socio-economic recovery and build resilience. We have already disbursed around Euro 60 million this year in direct grant-based budget support to Armenia to tackle COVID-19 and more is yet to come. Our assistance is expected to help implement important economic reforms, preserve jobs & small businesses and promote inclusive growth in Armenia. The fight against pandemic is definitely not over but we can overcome it only by standing together as one”.

The EU’s response follows a Team Europe approach, aimed at saving lives by providing quick and targeted support to our partners to face this pandemic. It combines resources from the EU, its Member States and European financial institutions to support partner countries and address their short-term needs, as well as the longer-term structural impacts on societies and the economy.

**Dhaka, 20 December 2020 – **In a landmark announcement, the European Union has committed US$ 25.7 million to support UNICEF’s child protection programme in Bangladesh over the next four years. The project will give over 10 million children access to social services, and will empower children to claim their rights. The initiative has a special focus on adolescents and on children living with disabilities.

“This is an unprecedented investment in the realization of child rights in Bangladesh. Children have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this generous contribution from the European Union comes at such a critical juncture. It will help ensure that children whose needs are the greatest have equal opportunities and equal access to critical services,” said Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has developed inclusive policies and programmes for marginalized children. At the same time, crucial equity gaps remain, particularly for children living with disabilities. In Bangladesh, children living with disabilities are the least likely to receive healthcare or go to school. They face disadvantages and deprivation at home and in their communities.

“As families struggle to overcome challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we must invest now to build the safety nets needed for children and adolescents to reach their full potential and to contribute to their society in the future,” said Maurizio Cian, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh.

In the World Disability Report published in 2011, WHO and the World Bank estimate that 1 billion people or 15 per cent of the world’s population experience some form of disability. About 80 percent of people with disability live in developing countries.

The initiative will strengthen protection systems, policies and legislation in support of children and adolescents, including those living with disabilities, living in hard-to-reach, disaster-prone and disadvantaged areas, and those living on the streets. UNICEF will work closely with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the Ministry of Social Welfare and other partners to strengthen basic social services for marginalized children. At the same time, disadvantaged children and adolescents will be given opportunities to become change agents in their own communities, with skills to challenge harmful social norms and discriminatory practices.

Media contacts

Faria Selim

UNICEF Bangladesh

Tel: +8809604107077

Email: [email protected]

Anjum AZIZ

Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh

Tel: +৮৮০-২-৫৫৬৬৮০৫৭

Email: [email protected]

Britain and the European Union remained divided over competition and fishing on Wednesday as they tried to clinch a Brexit trade deal in time to avoid a turbulent split at the end of the year.
Ireland said a deal was still possible before Britain leaves the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, 11 months after it formally quit the bloc and entered a transition period keeping it in the bloc’s customs union and single market until the year ends.

But with a dizzying array of conflicting signals coming from the two sides, Britain has not yet managed to agree a deal that would ease the pain of its departure by keeping in place zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the single market.

British Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News that “at the moment there isn’t sufficient progress” at the talks.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the gap on how much fish EU boats could catch in British waters was still wide, but that he believed there should be a deal given the economic shock that failure would trigger.

“On balance, I think given the progress that has been made that there should be a deal,” Martin told national broadcaster RTE. “A no-deal would be an appalling shock to the economic system on top of COVID-19.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are in close contact and were expected to hold another call on Wednesday.

British sources said talks remained “difficult” and underscored the differences. EU sources were more upbeat.

The British pound rose, as did midcap stocks. Investors expect swings in the currency as overnight volatility was holding above 25%.

Johnson, who is also grappling with a deepening COVID-19 outbreak and a border crisis at Europe‘s busiest truck port, has said he will not sign up to any deal that undermines British sovereignty.

Walking away from the talks might win applause from many Brexit supporters in Britain but could cause severe disruptions to goods trade which makes up half of annual EU-UK commerce, worth nearly a trillion dollars in all.

DEAL TIME?

Britain, which joined the EU’s precursor in 1973, has often had stormy relations with the countries in the Franco-German led project which sought to bind the ruined nations of post-World War Two Europe into a global power.

The scale of possible Brexit disruption has been laid bare by France closing its borders to Britain for 48 hours, citing a new coronavirus variant. This left thousands of European truckers stranded in southern England and disrupted food supplies.

The EU is making a “final push” to strike a trade deal though rifts over fishing rights remain, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said on Tuesday.

Ireland’s Martin said that if there was a breakthrough on Wednesday or Thursday, officials in Europe could be working on the text on Christmas Day.

“I’m still reasonably optimistic but there’s no news to report to you this morning,” Britain’s Jenrick said. “There’s still the same serious areas of disagreement whether that’s on fisheries or the level playing field.”

Level playing field is trade jargon for ensuring fair competition. EU leaders fear that after Brexit the United Kingdom could ease regulation to undercut others and gouge EU market share. Enforcement is an important issue.

Beside competition, the sides are haggling over how much EU fishermen can catch in Britain’s waters: essentially how many sole, sand eels and mackerel EU boats can fish per year, where and how to renew such agreements.

Barnier told EU envoys on Tuesday that Britain’s latest offer on sharing out the fish catch from British waters from 2021 was “totally unacceptable,” according to EU diplomats.

December 23rd, 2020 by Guest Contributor 

Originally published on website of European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens’ organizations.

All of the EU’s member states but two have failed to show how they will slash air pollution to comply with the emissions limits set out in the EU’s National Emission Ceilings Directive, a troubling new report finds. This puts in peril public health and Europe’s efforts to combat air pollution.

Released on 18 December 2020, the EEB report sheds light on progress by member states towards compliance with the National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive, which aims to halve the impact of air pollution on people health by 2030.

Under the directive, EU governments are obliged to develop national air pollution control programmes which outline how the member state will reduce emissions of five major pollutants by 2020 and 2030.

The first programme was due by 1 April 2019. However, only eight countries submitted it by the deadline (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom), while some other governments submitted theirs more than a year later. Greece, Luxembourg and Romania have still not delivered their programme and Italy has only submitted a draft.

Airy promises

Moreover, our analysis shows that only two member states (Belgium and Slovakia) are on track to meet the targets for the decade between 2020 and 2029, while only Belgium is on course to satisfy its 2030 commitments.

“With our health and our environment at stake, it is a scandal that all but two member states have fallen so short of their commitments to reduce air pollution over this critical decade,” said the EEB’s Senior Policy Officer for Air and Noise Margherita Tolotto. “We call on the European Commission to start infringement procedures against all the member states which have failed to submit a credible Programme, and to ensure that all plans are fit for purpose.”

Tolotto also urged member states to get their houses in order:

“We ask national governments to tackle air pollution with the urgency it deserves, by putting in place the necessary national programmes and sticking to them. As many of them prepare their National Recovery and Resilience Plans, air quality must be a priority.”

Background

Despite improvements in air quality, air pollution remains the biggest environmental health risk in Europe, causing around 400,000 premature deaths per year in the European Union.

When adopting the NEC Directive, member states agreed to reduce their emissions of five pollutants by 2020 and 2030. EU legislation requires them to prepare a national air pollution control programme outlining how they will meet their emissions reduction targets in all sectors, including domestic heating and agriculture.

When preparing these programmes, national governments also have the obligation to consult with and inform the public.

Our report explores what went wrong and provides tools and recommendations to rectify the dire situation, including the steps to be taken and measures to be included to prepare a good national programme.

The EEB is Europe’s largest network of environmental citizens’ groups with 150 members in more than 30 countries. Together with DUH, FNE and the Lake Constance Foundation, the EEB has launched the “Clean Air Farming” project to help reduce ammonia and methane emissions from agriculture.

The Project Clean Air Farming (LIFE17 GIE/DE/610 Air & Agriculture) is co-financed by the LIFE-Programme of the European Commission. 
 


 

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Tags: air pollution, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, EU air pollution, EU National Emission Ceilings Directive, Europe air pollution, Finland, netherlands, portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, UK

Wednesday 23 December 2020 10:00