EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday told the bloc’s leaders that there were “low expectations” a post-Brexit trade deal could be struck with Britain, EU sources said.
In this file photo taken on January 05, 2020 This picture taken in Brussels, shows the flags of the United Kingdom and the European Union next to the “Brexit” word. (Photo by Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)
An EU official said leaders heard that the “probability of a no deal is higher than of a deal” at a brief discussion of Brexit at a marathon Brussels summit, as time ticks down to a Sunday deadline to make a call on prolonging talks or giving up.
The pessimistic tone came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Thursday there was a “strong possibility” of no deal, and instructed his government to prepare for Britain to crash out of the European Union’s single market at the end of this year.
Negotiators from the EU and Britain are carrying on talks in Brussels Friday to see if they can fathom a route to an accord by the weekend cut-off point set by von der Leyen and Johnson at a combative dinner meeting this week.
An EU official said it would become clear soon if there was any point to prolonging the discussions, but refused to rule out a last-minute “turnaround” in the talks to secure a deal despite the gathering gloom.
The EU on Thursday published its own contingency plans to keep basic air and road travel running and fishing rights open in the event of no deal, in a move seen as a warning shot to London.
Britain left the EU on January 31 after five decades of integration but a standstill transition period, under which it remains bound by the bloc’s rules pending any new deal, ends on the night of December 31.
Without a post-Brexit deal, Britain’s trade with its biggest market would in future operate on pared-down World Trade Organization rules, with tariffs and quotas.
Talks are mainly blocked over the issue of fair competition, with Britain refusing to accept a mechanism that would allow the EU to respond swiftly if UK and EU business rules diverge over time and put European firms at a disadvantage.
Fishing is another sore issue, with Europe eager to keep as much access as possible to the UK’s waters.
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In “Saying Goodbye to Hanukkah,” Sarah Prager writes about celebrating traditionally religious holidays without religion:
Growing up, my sister and I ate our Hanukkah latkes next to stockings our mother had cross-stitched with depictions of Santa. The white flickering light from the menorah’s candles mixed with the glow of colorful electric lights on our locally cut Christmas tree, decorated with tinsel and Stars of David. Celebrating two holidays at once was normal and a joy. But I’m making different choices with my own children, who won’t grow up with Hanukkah at all.
My sister and I never attended religious services for any Jewish or Christian holidays, but we were still raised with religion. My family attended a Unitarian Universalist meeting house where it was common to celebrate multiple religions’ holy days. We looked forward to the annual Festival of Lights, where each room of the building had a different activity set up: Kwanzaa candle dipping, gingerbread house decorating, reindeer craft making, dreidel spinning, Yule wreath building.
My father’s Jewish tradition only appeared at Hanukkah for the American “holiday season.” We didn’t celebrate Passover or Rosh Hashanah or any other Jewish holiday as a family. In contrast, my mom’s Catholic upbringing emerged not only at Christmas, but also for Easter, though that was only about eggs, bunnies and the resurrection of spring, not Jesus.
We celebrated every holiday secularly, like Halloween or Thanksgiving 一 except Hanukkah. Each of those eight nights we’d recite the Hebrew prayer about God while lighting the menorah. We memorized the syllables and repeated them, but they had no meaning to us and my parents didn’t expect, or want, us to believe what we were reciting. We were trying to honor my dad’s heritage, but it wasn’t a custom he truly wanted to hold on to.
Ms. Prager goes on to explain that, now, she and her wife identify as “nones” — people with no religious affiliation — and that they raise their children celebrating Christmas and Easter, but not in the context of religion:
I respect the incredible value of keeping traditions alive, especially those that centuries of persecution have sought to erase. But while I have more of a connection to Judaism than some, I am not Jewish and it doesn’t feel authentic to celebrate a Jewish holiday religiously. My kids may end up playing dreidel sometimes, but they won’t learn the prayer that begins Baruch atah Adonai, sacred words that are nonetheless empty to them.
Discontinuing my family’s Hanukkah celebration fits right in with our family’s tradition of bucking tradition. Most families do this in some way, even if just adjusting the Tooth Fairy’s gift for inflation. As a queer person, I know my kids will grow up alongside other children whose families created their own way of doing things because the old way hurt or didn’t fit.
Pride in June is my favorite holiday, but this year, the first as our completed family of four, we couldn’t go to a parade. I missed that much more than any holiday rooted in a religion that isn’t mine. I hope that the balloons, floats and rainbows that typically mark its celebration will be a special part of my children’s memories as they grow, and that they anticipate our invented Pride Fairy’s gifts as much as the Easter Bunny’s.
Students, read the entire article, then tell us:
In a few sentences, how would you describe your religious or spiritual beliefs — or your choice not to subscribe to religion?
What role does religion play in your life? Do you pray each day? Do you participate in religious traditions through the clothes you wear or the food you eat? Do you have a spiritual community that is important to you? Do you participate in religious holidays?
Katarina, a student, suggested this question: “Can you pick and choose which aspects of religion to follow?” What do you think? Is it possible to participate in only some elements of a religion, like holidays or prayers, without following all of a religious tradition? Do you do this in your own life? If so, how do you decide which parts of your religion to observe and which parts to leave behind?
If you are not religious, do you have other beliefs, traditions or practices — like meditation, yoga, art, music or being in nature — that ground you or give you a deeper sense of purpose or connection to the world? If so, what are they and what do they mean to you?
Which holidays are most important to you? If they are traditionally religious, is their religious nature important to how you celebrate them? Or do you celebrate them without the religious stories or rituals, like the writer of the article?
To what extent is your relationship to religion your own choice? Is it important to your family that you are connected to religion? Do you observe your religion in the way you are instructed to by religious leaders or texts? Or have you been able to explore and form your own spiritual beliefs? When you grow up, do you think you will choose to practice religion differently than your family does now? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
At a time the main focus of all the sectors of the society is on the COVID pandemic, there is another insidious problem developing covertly: the drug. If the pandemic has undoubtedly an impact on the health, the economy, and the society at large, it has also affected the availability and through the confinement of the use of the different drugs. And this is a real concern for the EMCDDA (1) but also for the other international institutions such as UNODC (2) and WHO (3).
Aware of these problems and to ensure the youth, parents, and public will not be deprived of vital information on the harmful effects of drug use, the Foundation for a Drug Free Europe(4) and its teams of volunteers of the hundred Say No To Drugs associations and groups existing in some twenty European countries, continued their actions of prevention education about drugs.
Indeed, wearing their turquoise tee-shirts and using the requested outdoors protections (masks, gloves, etc.) for distributions, the volunteers were found either outdoors in streets or parks, or behind a booth, handing-out their booklets The Truth About Drugs (5), or proposing a display of booklets to shopkeepers. Meanwhile, other volunteers were organizing educative series of lectures online on: what are drugs, their actions, etc. followed by discussion. They were rather successful.
Where do we stand at in Europe?
At the European level, The EMCDDA in a series of rapid studies, has also reported on the impact of COVID-19 on drug use and associated problems, help-seeking, service provision and the operation of the drug market.
In the last European Drug Report 2020 statistics EMCDDA reported an increasing amount of seizures being: 40% Herbal cannabis, 29% Cannabis resin (668 tonnes), 2% Cannabis plant, 10% Cocaine and crack, 6% Amphetamines, 5% Heroin, 3% MDMA, and 6% Other substances.
For Cannabis, from surveys of the general European population, it is estimated that around 1 % of adults are daily or almost daily cannabis users. The majority of these (60 %) are under 35 and around three quarters are male. Cannabis is always the world’s most popular illegal drug with the highest level of availability. The Chinese called it “the drug that takes away the mind”.
The number and quantity of cocaine seizures are now the highest ever reported, with over 181 tonnes of the drug seized in 2018. Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands are key countries for the interception of large quantities. Cocaine is now playing a more important role in the European drug problem. The cocaine market also appears an important driver for drug-related violence.
Regarding heroin and other opioids, 1,3 millions of people are high-risk opioid users and opioids are found in 82% of the fatal overdoses. After cannabis and cocaine, heroin is the third most common substance involved in drug-related acute toxicity presentations monitored by Euro-DEN Plus in 2018.
Is there a solution?
The first point should be the application by the governments (6) of the article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Then, fighting the drug scourge can be achieved by education of the youth and by prevention, spreading the message on the truth about drugs from the streets to the working place via the classrooms and everywhere. Indeed, empowering the youth with facts on what drugs are and what they do, is giving them the choice to decide to live a drug free life and reach their goals in a safe and sane society.
2-UNODC: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, located in Vienna (Austria).
“Know more, care more. Addressing the world drug problem requires responses that are based on facts, solidarity and compassion.” Ms. Ghada Waly, UNODC Executive Director
3-WHO: World Health Organisation; its main objective is “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.
4-FDFE: Established in 2004, a non-profit NGO, with an operating office located in Brussels. Visit: www.fdfe.eu Part of the European Commission Transparency Register.
5-The website www.DrugFreeWorld.org, partnering with FDFE is providing the 14 The Truth About Drugs prevention booklets in 17 languages, a DVD of testimonies and an Educator Guide.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama/File image/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL
The 14th Dalai Lama known as Tenzin Gyatso; born Lhamo Dhondup, 6 July 1935) is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader of Tibet, and considered a living buddha. The Dalai Lamas are also leaders of the Gelug school, which is the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism and was formally headed by the Ganden Tripas. From the time of the 5th Dalai Lama to 1959, the central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the position of Dalai Lama with temporal duties.
This year’s Gaden Ngamchoe [Tib: དགའ་ལྡན་ལྔ་མཆོད་] celebration brought tears of joy to Tibetans across the world as their beloved spiritual leader affirmed once again to live over 113 years.
This reaffirmation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama is indeed the long-cherished aspiration of six million Tibetans, and it’s these words of reassurance that made today’s anniversary of Lama Tsongkhapa’s parinirvana all the more auspicious and ceremonious.
He said there have also been divination by Getse Pandita, who lived during the 7th Dalai Lama Kalsang Gyatso (1708–1757), had foretold that the 14th Dalai Lama would live for 113 years. Late Kathok Getse Rinpoche had confirmed the same with His Holiness.
“It is due to the unwavering faith, trust and devotion that millions of Tibetans inside Tibet have vested in me that I sincerely hope and pray to live as long as I could,” said His Holiness.
“In the past decades, I have been able to significantly contribute to the flourishing of Tibetan culture and Buddhism and it is my wish to live long enough to continue to fulfill the hopes of the six million Tibetans.”
Just like a parent with unconditional love and compassion would pacify its children, over the years His Holiness the Dalai Lama has repeatedly told his Tibetan followers, who had grown concerned over his aging health, to be at ease for he would be amidst them for a much longer time.
Many were moved to tears of joy and gratitude as they watched and shared today’s video message with family and friends, united in the joy, peace and hope that Tibetans collectively feel in the well-being of their supreme leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama escaped to India, where he currently lives in exile while remaining the most important spiritual leader of Tibet. The Dalai Lama advocates for the welfare of Tibetans while continuing to call for the Middle Way Approach to negotiations with China for the autonomy of Tibet and the protection of Tibetan culture, including for the religious rights of Tibetans.
Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading philanthropy committed to empowering young African entrepreneurs, has announced a partnership with the European Union to identify, train, mentor and fund 2,500 young African women entrepreneurs in 2021.
The partnership will disburse €20 million in financial and technical support for women-owned businesses, across all 54 African countries, in addition to providing increased access to market linkages, supply chains and venture capital investments.
The joint initiative will significantly strengthen and deepen the EU-Africa partnership, builds on the platform and experience of the US$100m TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, and forms part of the EU External Investment Plan to support women economic empowerment within the EU Gender Action Plan (GAP III).
Commenting on the landmark partnership, Tony Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation said “We are delighted to partner with the European Union, sharing our unique ability to identify, train, mentor and fund young entrepreneurs across Africa.
“This joint effort will prioritise and provide economic opportunities for African women, whom for too long have endured systemic obstacles to starting, growing and sustaining their businesses. Our partnership will alleviate the funding, knowledge and market constraints threatening the livelihoods of women entrepreneurs on the continent, to create more income, jobs, growth and scale for women-owned businesses.”
The EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said “This partnership with the Tony Elumelu Foundation will help women participants in economic development, realise their full potential and accelerate economic inclusion.
“Empowering women entrepreneurs is a key driver for sustainable jobs and growth, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and in line with the objectives of our African Strategy. Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and they deserve equal opportunities.”
The Tony Elumelu Foundation, which marks ten years of impact this year, is empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and ensuring job creation across all 54 African countries.
The Foundation has trained, mentored and funded nearly 10,000 young African entrepreneurs from 54 African countries, and continues to provide capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 million Africans through its digital networking platform, TEFConnect.
TEF’s female success stories include Joyce Awojoodu, from Nigeria, who launched a luxury botanically based product line and spa clinic in Lagos, in 2015. The brand ORÍKÌ, caters to both men and women, and strictly uses raw materials and natural ingredients from Africa. Awojoodu’s favourite element of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme was the mentorship, which she described as “phenomenal”’ and “invaluable” for ORÍKÌ.
In her own words, “each TEF Entrepreneur was assigned a mentor and I could not have asked for a better one. TEF connected us. Now the mentorship continues, and I know I will always have an ear to share my thoughts about the business with a person who can also offer advice”.
Mavis Mduchwa, an agribusiness entrepreneur from Botswana, founded Chabana Farms, a poultry farm providing training and work for unemployed young people. Even though agriculture accounts for 32% of Africa’s gross domestic product, landownership and access to land remains a significant challenge for many farmers, especially women.
According to Mduchwa, “in Botswana, about 80% of people survive on agriculture, and many of them are women. But, if as a women you want to turn it into a business, you have a challenge of finding land.” Mduchwa has used the seed capital and training from TEF to significantly expand her operations.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation and the European Commission are proud to partner to unlock the dynamic potential of African women entrepreneurs, directly catalysing African’s economic growth and contributing to Africa’s prosperity and social development.
The programme co-funded by the European Union, the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific State (OACPS), and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), will further scale the Foundation’s efforts in directly addressing some of the most endemic challenges to African start-ups – skills and capacity gaps, financial constraints and lack of access to mentoring, networks and market linkages.
Following completion of the programme, the entrepreneurs will stay connected to partners and to each other through their lifetime membership on TEFConnect. TEF has set up Country Chapters in 54 African countries to support the entrepreneurs as they grow and expand their businesses.
Work on the foundations of the temple in Kinshasa is advancing steadily while work in Kenya approaches final stages.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic Of The Congo — Construction work on Bahá’í Houses of Worship in two African communities is steadily progressing.
Less than two months since the groundbreaking for the national Bahá’í House of Worship in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, excavation is complete for the main ring of the edifice’s foundations.
In Matunda Soy, Kenya, construction of the local House Worship has continued in spite of heavy rains and other difficulties. The central edifice is now at an advanced stage of completion. Work on the roof and decoration of doorways and external walls is underway. A reception center and other ancillary buildings on the site are also nearing completion.
In both places, the projects are inspiring activities of service and devotion on and off the temple sites.
Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo
The following selection of images show the early stages of construction in Kinshasa.
A process known as concrete blinding creates a smooth surface to work on. Masonry blocks are then used to create formwork for the reinforced concrete foundations.
With the masonry mostly laid, the footprint of the future temple takes shape.
Volunteers from the local community around the temple site are helping in various tasks, including tending to a nursery for plants that will be used in the gardens.
The site of the House of Worship has already become a place of prayer, where people gather every morning to sing and recite prayers and passages from the Bahá’í writings and draw inspiration for daily service to their community.
Matunda Soy, Kenya
The following selection of images shows the current stage of progress in Matunda Soy.
With the completion of concrete walls and roof beams of the central edifice, work has continued on steelwork for the roof, cladding for the external walls, and decorations for the pillars and doorways. A reception center (visible to the right of the central edifice) and other ancillary buildings are approaching completion.
All steel work is now in place to support the tiles and skylights that will make up the roof.
The steelwork is covered with waterproofing and plaster.
One of the nine entrances to the central edifice. The trellis around each doorway will incorporate glass between two layers of wood. Decorative plaster for the external columns and the doorways has been completed.
Planters are being prepared on the plinth around the central edifice.
Left: The reception center with the central edifice visible in the background. Right: Work continues on one of the ancillary buildings that will provide services to visitors.
As construction across the site advances, work is beginning on the gardens and paths that will surround the temple.
Members of the community discussing the future of the temple. The local House of Worship will be a center of community life in Matunda Soy, inspiring acts of worship and service throughout the area.
Sputnik is live from Brussels, where EU leaders are gathering for the first day of the European Council meeting. Heads of European states and governments are set to discuss the pandemic situation across the bloc, work on coronavirus vaccines, and relations with London following the implementation of a withdrawal agreement. They are also expected to discuss a sanctions regime for individuals over human rights violations.
LONDON: The European Union (EU) on Thursday set out contingency plans as talks with the UK on a post-Brexit trade agreement continue to hang in the balance after both sides declared that there are still “large gaps” to be overcome ahead of the December-end deadline.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had flown to Brussels in a last-minute dash to try and thrash out a breakthrough with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over dinner on Wednesday.
However, their talks failed to find a way forward on three key divergences around fishing rights, level playing field rules and future governance mechanisms.
“We had a lively and interesting discussion on the state of play across the list of outstanding issues. We gained a clear understanding of each other’s positions. They remain far apart,” said Von der Leyen.
“We are willing to grant access to the single market to our British friends, it’s the largest single market in the world. But the conditions have to be fair. They have to be fair for our workers and for our companies and this balance of fairness has not been achieved so far. We will take a decision on Sunday,” she said, ahead of an EU summit on Thursday.
EU leaders will be briefed about the talks at the summit, although Brexit is not on the official discussion agenda.
It would now seem that Sunday, December 13, would be a kind of hard deadline after UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was “unlikely” the negotiations would be extended beyond Sunday.
“I think we view it as a point when we need some finality. I’m just a bit reticent ever to say – you can never say never with these EU negotiations,” he told Sky News.
“Of course, it depends if the EU moves. If the EU moves substantially and actually, we’re only dotting a few Is or crossing a few Ts, it might be different. But I think without movement on the crucial two, three areas that I’ve described, I think that will be a point of finality. And that’s certainly the way the UK side is approaching it,” he said.
Despite the two sides ordering their Chief Negotiators to resume talks until the weekend, they also agreed that trade talks remained “very difficult” and there are still “major differences between the two sides”.
Prior to his trip to Brussels on Wednesday, Johnson had told MPs the EU wanted the “automatic right” to punish the UK in the future, if it does not comply with new EU laws. He also suggested the EU wanted to keep control of fishing rights in UK waters beyond the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.
The UK government has called on Brussels to recognise “two basic points of principle that no other country in the world would accept in dealing with the EU or anyone else as an independent state”.
“The concept the UK would leave the transition period as an independent coastal state but without control of our fisheries; that’s something that no country in the world has accepted, or is in the position of – why would the UK,” questioned Raab, in reference to one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a deal.
“We’ll accept the kind of requirements in the EU’s own free trade agreements, whether it’s South Korea or Canada,” he said.
Unless the UK and EU are able to thrash out and ratify a deal by the end of this month, Britain will have left the 27-member economic bloc on January 1, 2021, with the prospect of tariffs and quotas on goods as both sides trade on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms. AK CPS
The package comprises the EU’s €1.1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) Multi-annual Financial Framework, which is paid into by every member state and distributed across the bloc over a seven-year period, and a special Covid recovery fund of €750 billion ($858 billion), for which the EU will centrally raise money on financial markets and hand out as both loans and grants to member states.
Two member states, Poland and Hungary, had vetoed the agreement at previous meetings of member states in protest at EU demands that funds would be withheld from member states deemed to be in violation of the rule of law. Both countries are currently under investigation for exactly this, with charges ranging from suppression of political opposition to undermining the independence of judges.
However, at a meeting in Brussels, a compromise was found which satisfied the two delinquent states. If enough member states believe that Poland or Hungary, for example, are not meeting the EU’s agreed rules and standards, they can trigger a vote which can be secured by a qualified majority. However, the latest agreement provides the country in question with the option to challenge that decision at the European Court of Justice.
Vera Jourova, vice president of the European Commission, said she was “satisfied that the legal text of the Regulation on Rule of Law conditionality remains untouched and that there is “qualified majority voting in the decision of the Council.”
She also said she believes that “some Member States might want to seek full legal certainty on this important matter before the European Court of Justice. This is their right. I expect the proceeding to go fast. In my view, we are talking about months rather than years.”
However, that might not satisfy critics of Hungary or Poland. Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, was quick to claim victory soon after the agreement was reached. “We’ve won. In a difficult period of pandemic, economic crisis, there’s no time to continue political and ideological debates that prevent us from acting,” Orban said.
And Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has already said he intends to take the EU to the ECJ, according to Reuters.
“There is a concern that the padding added to the rule of law conditionality mechanism will delay its effective use,” Jakub Jaraczewski, legal officer at Democracy Reporting International, told CNN. “If Member States will be able to challenge the proposed regulation before the European Court of Justice, it might take a lot of time before the conditionality mechanism could be effectively implemented.”
The agreement will be a huge relief to European citizens, who have suffered badly over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, Brussels’ top brass was in celebratory mood.
“Now we can start with the implementation and build back our economies,” Charles Michel, president of the EU Council, tweeted soon after the deal was reached. “Our landmark recovery package will drive forward our green & digital transitions.”
However, over the coming days, it’s likely that critics of the European Union will accuse the bloc of blinking on the rule of law, a fundamental cornerstone to the integrity of the bloc.
The greatest challenges we face to today are global. This is true for climate change and the need to build new models of sustainable and resilient development. It is equally true for the coronavirus pandemic that threatens to erode some of the progress made on poverty reduction around the world.
As the world’s largest multilateral development bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has the means, and the experience, to help nations outside of Europe meet these challenges. Our report, Global Reach: The Impact of the EIB beyond the European Union, looks at our projects outside of Europe that bring clean water, green energy, new infrastructure and funds for small and female-owned businesses.
Our projects provide the kind of support societies need to advance, and to advance in a way that will last well into the future.
