Last-ditch discussions between the U.K. and the European Union over future trade ties are set to resume in Brussels later Sunday, two days after they were “paused” amid “significant differences” on an array of issues.
Britain’s main negotiator, David Frost, arrived in the Belgian capital on Sunday to pick up discussions with his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier.
The meeting was authorized by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after a telephone call on Saturday.
The two leaders noted that fundamental differences between the two sides remain over the “level playing field” — the standards the U.K. must meet to export into the bloc — how future disputes are resolved and fishing rights for EU trawlers in U.K. waters. Still, they said a “further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved.”
Negotiators may only have until Monday evening to make some headway. Johnson and von der Leyen said they would talk again and underlined that “no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved.”
With the U.K.’s post-Brexit transition period due to end this year, the discussions are clearly at a crunch point, not least because of the necessary approvals required on both sides after negotiators reach a deal. Without an agreement in place, tariffs will end up being imposed on traded goods at the start of 2021.
Both sides would suffer economically from a failure to secure a trade deal, but most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit, at least in the near-term, as it is relatively more reliant on trade with the 27-nation EU than vice versa.
LONDON — The European Union and the United Kingdom decided Saturday to press on with negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal, with all three key issues still unresolved ahead of a year-end cutoff.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said after a phone call that their negotiators will return to the table today as fundamental differences persist over the rules for fair competition, legal oversight of the deal and fishing rights for EU trawlers in U.K. waters.
“Significant differences remain,” the two leaders said in a statement after their tea-time call to assess the state of play over the future relationship.
While the U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31, it remains within the bloc’s tariff-free single market and customs union through Dec. 31. Reaching a trade deal by then would ensure there are no tariffs and trade quotas on goods exported or imported by the two sides, although there would still be technical costs, partly associated with customs checks and nontariff barriers on services.
The talks would surely have collapsed by now were the interests and economic costs at stake not so massive. But because the EU is an economic power of 450 million people and Britain has major diplomatic and security interests beyond its commercial might, the two sides want to explore every last chance to get a deal before they become acrimonious rivals.
“Whilst recognizing the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved,” Johnson and von der Leyen said after speaking for about an hour.
“We are therefore instructing our chief negotiators to reconvene tomorrow [Sunday] in Brussels,” the pair said in their statement, adding that they would reassess the chances of success Monday night.
The two leaders noted that progress has been achieved in many areas but that divisions remain on fishing rights, the “level playing field” — the standards the U.K. must meet to export into the bloc — and how future disputes are to be resolved.
“Both sides underlined that no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved,” von der Leyen and Johnson said Saturday.
An EU source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were ongoing, said the fair competition rules that the U.K. should meet before it can export tariff-free into the 27-nation bloc were still a major stumbling block.
At the heart of the negotiations is reconciling how Britain wrests itself free of EU rules with the bloc’s insistence that no country, however important, should get easy access to its lucrative market by undercutting its high environmental and social standards.
The politically charged issue of fisheries also continues to play an outsized role. The EU has demanded widespread access to U.K. fishing grounds that historically have been open to foreign trawlers. But in Britain, gaining control of the fishing grounds was a main issue for the Brexiteers who pushed for the country to leave the EU.
With the U.K.’s post-Brexit transition period due to conclude, the discussions are clearly at a crunch point, not least because of the necessary approvals required on both sides after negotiators reach a deal. Without an agreement, tariffs will end up being imposed on traded goods at the start of 2021.
Both sides would suffer economically from a failure to secure a trade deal, but most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit, at least in the near term, as it is relatively more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, appears ready to go again.
“Work continues tomorrow,” he said in a tweet Saturday.
European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier wears a face mask as he leaves his hotel to head back to Brussels, in London, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020. With less than one month to go before the U.K. exits the EU’s economic orbit, talks have been paused due to “significant divergences.” (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier waves as he leaves his hotel to head back to Brussels, in London, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020. With less than one month to go before the U.K. exits the EU’s economic orbit, talks have been paused due to “significant divergences.” (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen makes a statement on camera regarding Brexit negotiations, after a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at EU headquarters in Brussels, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020. (Julien Warnand)
A pro-European Union membership supporter protests with illuminated European and Union flags outside Brexit trade negotiations between Britain and the EU at the Conference Centre in London, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. With less than one month to go before the U.K. exits the EU’s economic orbit, talks are continuing, and U.K. officials have said this is the last week to strike a deal. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holds her notes as she steps away from the podium after making a statement on camera regarding Brexit negotiations, after a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at EU headquarters in Brussels, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020. (Julien Warnand)
European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier wears a face mask as he leaves his hotel to head back to Brussels, in London, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020. With less than one month to go before the U.K. exits the EU’s economic orbit, talks have been paused due to “significant divergences.” (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
El principal negociador para el Brexit por la Unión Europea, Michel Barnier, arriba el viernes 4 de diciembre del 2020 al Centro de Conferencias, en Londres, (AP Foto/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Pro-European Union membership supporters protest outside Brexit trade negotiations between Britain and the EU outside the Conference Centre in London, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. With less than one month to go before the U.K. exits the EU’s economic orbit, talks are continuing, and U.K. officials have said this is the last week to strike a deal. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
A pro-European Union membership supporter protests with illuminated European and Union flags outside Brexit trade negotiations between Britain and the EU at the Conference Centre in London, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. With less than one month to go before the U.K. exits the EU’s economic orbit, talks are continuing, and U.K. officials have said this is the last week to strike a deal. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
“If Hungary and Poland still refuse to confirm the current state of affairs, it will be necessary to find a more radical solution, which means that the recovery plan for Europe will include 25 [EU members]. Legally, it is complicated but possible. Our stance is clear: we will not sacrifice either recovery [package], nor the rule of law”, Beaune said on Sunday in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche.
The leaders of the EU’s member states struck a deal to create a 750 billion euro ($909 billion) COVID-19 recovery fund, named NextGenerationEU, back in July. However, controversy has arisen as the bloc seeks to make access to the funds contingent on the observation of European values, such as democratic norms and respect for the rule of law.
At a meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper II) on 16 November, Poland and Hungary refused to give their consent to the recovery fund in opposition of the rule of law mechanism, outlining their belief that it could result in double standards applied to different EU members.
They also refused to approve the bloc’s proposed 1.074 trillion euro budget, which is expected to run from 2021 through 2027, disrupting the European Union’s plan to adopt it before the end of the year.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged Poland and Hungary on 25 November to take their dispute to court, rather than hold up efforts to approve the budget and recovery fund.
LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) – British and European Union negotiators will meet in Brussels on Sunday in a last-ditch attempt to strike a post-Brexit trade deal before a transition agreement ends on Dec. 31.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke on Saturday and instructed their teams to resume talks after they were paused on Friday.
In a joint statement after their call, Johnson and von der Leyen said that no agreement was feasible if disagreements on the three thorny issues of governance, fisheries and competition rules, known as the level playing field, were not resolved.
“This is the final throw of the dice,” a British source close to the negotiations said.
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the talks on Sunday with his British counterpart David Frost would show whether a new trade deal could be struck.
A majority of Johnson’s ministers were willing to back him if he decides a deal is not in Britain’s interests, the Times newspaper reported, saying 13 cabinet ministers – including eight who opposed Brexit – had confirmed they would do so.
British farming minister George Eustice backed that up in an interview on Sky News on Sunday, saying the country had done a huge amount of preparation for a no-deal and was ready to go through with such a scenario.
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“We’ll continue to work on these negotiations until there’s no point in doing so any further,” said Eustice.
But Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, a key figure in Brexit talks in recent years, said it was not credible for the British government to suggest they could manage a no-deal.
Striking a more optimistic note, Coveney said it was his “very strong view” that a deal could be done. “We are more likely to get a deal than not,” Coveney told Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper.
Negotiations were paused on Friday after hopes of a deal earlier in the week evaporated. The British team said the EU had made demands incompatible with its sovereignty and warned that the talks could end without an agreement.
Coveney denied the EU had hardened its stance.
If they fail to reach a deal, a five-year Brexit divorce will end messily just as Britain and its former EU partners grapple with the economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts have warned that a no-deal scenario would cause huge long-term disruption to the British economy.
Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by David Clarke
Each week here at YNaija, we round up the best Nigerian writing on the internet, highlighting the stories, profiles, interviews and in-depth reporting that rise above the daily churn.
Timaya’s existence has been dedicated to a steady pursuit of wealth and artistic value. Even his weed—recently delivered in fancy wrapping—looks and smells rich. “Look at this strain,” he picks up a black pack, emptying the herbs into his palm and pushing it forward for me to catch a whiff. “This is called Purple Punch,” he says. “The other one is ‘Creative Sativa.” His assistant begins to roll some for the occasion. “Because of weed, I have to buy a house in Amsterdam,” Timaya declares. While we smoke, the dumbbells saw constant action.
In no other country in the world do so many pregnant women die as in Nigeria: around 58,000 women per year . Many of them die of an abortion that is performed under unsafe conditions – a 2019 study estimates that there are around 6,000 women annually – others die in childbirth or from its sequelae. For every woman dead, there are hundreds more who suffer from the health consequences of unsafe abortion .
LMAO. I stayed over that night. The next day, we went out for ice cream. We kept smiling at each other from across the table. We came back to his, and started watching a movie. He paused it, turned to me and said, “We’ve known each other for so long, we care about each other very much. I think we want to make each other happy. I think we should date.”
“I could call Dapo Abiodun [the state governor] but obviously you don’t just call him; he’s no longer Uncle Dapo.”
“My daddy gave me the commissioner of Police’s number. I called him, he said I was disturbing his sleep. I said ‘my dear, you will wake up.’”
“I called my grandpa, I said ‘sir, for your legacy – phone Obasanjo, start waking everybody you know. People are being imprisoned in our state, it’s not normal.’”
Immediately after NYSC, I got a job at an oil company. The starting pay was ₦350k/month. For the first time, I had more money than I knew how to spend. Anyway, I earned this for about 10 months before I moved jobs, another oil company, this time the pay was ₦500k.
I got a few promotions, and by the time I was leaving the company in 2019, I was earning roughly ₦1 million a month, excluding bonuses. I left to a bigger oil company and currently earn about ₦4 million/month.
Toluwanimi Onakoya is a spirited writer, creative and videographer. Her biggest drive is to connect with people and depict tales using various forms of media.
Toluwanimi is available on Instagram and Twitter @nimi_onaks
The trade volume between Qatar and the European Union reached $7bn in the first nine months of 2020, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Qatar Chamber has also announced that although trade between the United Kingdom and Qatar has increased by 22% over the past two years, it has been dropping in recent months, with its value reaching $2.5bn at the end of the third quarter of 2020.
Trade between Qatar and European Union member states makes up 12.3% of Qatar’s total global trade, that’s according to minister Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, who highlighted the growing business ties between Qatar and Europe during a call with EU and World Trade Organisation representatives.
Qatar has signed 14 commercial, economic, and technical cooperation agreements, as well as 12 “Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Mutual Investments” agreements with various EU member nations in addition to having eight joint committees on trade and commerce.
Aside from trade, Doha’s investments in the EU stand at $31bn, while there are 2,129 fully or partial EU owned companies operating in Qatar. Qatari investments in the UK, which is on its way out of the European Union, currently stand at $47bn.
LONDON: Britain and the European Union will reconvene post-Brexit trade negotiations in Brussels on Sunday after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen held inconclusive talks, as time runs short to seal a deal.
The pair held the crunch on Saturday afternoon phone call, which reportedly lasted around an hour, with pressure intensifying to finalise an agreement ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period on Dec 31.
The high-level political intervention followed UK and European Union envoys pausing the last-ditch talks late on Friday.
Both sides continue to have “significant differences” on several critical issues that have long stalled negotiations, a joint statement said.
“Whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved,” Johnson and von der Leyen said in a statement following their conversation.
“We are therefore instructing our chief negotiators to reconvene tomorrow in Brussels. We will speak again on Monday evening.” A deal is seen as essential to avoid deep trade disruption on both sides — but especially in Britain — to economies already damaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnson and von der Leyen last spoke on Nov 7, but a month later Britain and the bloc remain divided over so-called level playing field provisions, governance and fisheries. “Both sides underlined that no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved,” Saturday’s joint statement added.
Britain formally left the EU in January, nearly four years after a referendum on membership that divided the nation.
But it has remained bound by most of its rules until the end of the year, as the two sides try to agree the exact nature of their future relationship.
Without a deal, the bulk of cross-Channel trade will revert to World Trade Organization terms, an unwanted return to tariffs and quotas after almost five decades of deepening economic and political integration.
Talks through this year have finalised most aspects of an agreement, with Britain set to leave the EU single market and customs union, but the most thorny issues have remain unresolved.
“We will see if there is a way forward,” EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said. “Work continues tomorrow.” Johnson has insisted Britain will “prosper mightily” whatever the outcome of the talks, but he will face severe political and economic fallout if he cannot seal a deal.
“If we fail to get an agreement with the European Union, this will be a serious failure of statecraft,” Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Lowy Institute in an interview published on Saturday.
European capitals have remained remarkably united behind Barnier through the fraught Brexit process, but some internal fractures have now begun to surface.
France on Friday threatened to veto any deal that fails short of their demands on ensuring fair trade and access to UK fishing waters.
Meanwhile a European diplomat said that Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark share Paris’s concerns that the EU side could give too much ground on rules to maintain competition.
Image Source : ANI Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan chairs high-level meeting on Dharma Swatantrya (Religious Freedom) Bill 2020 in Bhopal today.
He said at the meeting that the Bill, will ensure that no religious conversion is carried out forcefully, or by tempting someone or through marriage.
<
p class=”artconfp”>Conversion through marriage or by any other fraudulent means will attract prison term of up to 10 years and fine of up to Rs 1 lakh under the proposed
Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act, an official said on Saturday. A marriage solemnized only for the purpose of converting a person will be held as null and valid, he said.
If a person wants to undergo conversion, he or she would need to make a declaration before a district magistrate at least a month in advance under the proposed law.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the proposed law, said an official of the state Public Relations Department.
Under the proposed law, no person in the state will be able to convert anyone directly or otherwise through marriage or by any other fraudulent means by luring or intimidating anyone, the official said, quoting the chief minister.
A person involved in converting another person by misleading, luring, threatening or through marriage will be prosecuted.
The sentence could be up to 10 years in the cases of religious conversion of minors, groups, or of those belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
Blood relatives, including parents of victims of such religious conversion, can file complaint, the official said.
A marriage solemnized with the intention of religious conversion would be considered null and void. These cases would be investigated by a police officer not below the sub-inspector’s rank.
On November 28, governor of the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh gave assent to the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, against forcible or fraudulent religious conversions.
The ordinance provides for imprisonment of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of Rs 50,000 under different categories.
The EU and Britain’s chief Brexit negotiators will make a last-ditch bid to break months of deadlock on Sunday, as trade talks limp back to Brussels, surviving on borrowed time.
Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost will once again try to find common ground on the critical issues that have split both sides since talks began in March.
The extra time came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen held an emergency phone call on Saturday.
Both sides agreed that “significant differences” remained, but that talks should continue — at least until their next scheduled call on Monday.
EU Common Fisheries Policy and EEZs
Sabrina BLANCHARD, AFP
“Whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved,” the leaders said in a statement following their conversation.
“We are therefore instructing our chief negotiators to reconvene tomorrow in Brussels. We will speak again on Monday evening.”
The high-level intervention came after Barnier and Frost broke off talks late Friday after day and night negotiations over seven days in London failed to reach a deal.
While much has been agreed, the sides cannot close out the thorniest debates over fishing rights, fair trade rules and an enforcement mechanism to govern any deal.
‘Anything is possible’ –
Britain formally left the EU in January, nearly four years after a referendum on membership that divided the nation.
But it is bound to the EU’s tariff-free single market until the end of the year — by which time the two sides must try to agree on the exact nature of their future relationship.
“Anything is possible. The three open issues are linked by Britain’s intent to keep sovereignty a priority, and Europe‘s fear of UK freeloading,” a source with close knowledge of the talks told AFP.
Without a deal, the bulk of cross-Channel trade will revert to World Trade Organization terms, a return to tariffs and quotas after almost five decades of close economic and political integration.
As night fell in London on Friday, EU and UK negotiators were locked in last-minute debates over a post-Brexit trade deal
Tolga Akmen, AFP
Talks through this year have finalised most aspects of an agreement, with Britain set to leave the EU single market and customs union, but the three core issues are unresolved.
“We will see if there is a way forward,” EU chief negotiator Barnier said Saturday. “Work continues tomorrow.”
Johnson has insisted Britain will “prosper mightily” whatever the outcome of the talks, but he will face severe political and economic fallout if he cannot seal a deal.
“If we fail to get an agreement with the European Union, this will be a serious failure of statecraft,” Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Lowy Institute in an interview published Saturday.
European capitals have remained remarkably united behind Barnier through the fraught Brexit process, but some internal fractures have now begun to surface.
France on Friday threatened to veto any deal that fails short of their demands on ensuring fair trade and access to UK fishing waters.
Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark share Paris’s concerns that the EU side could give too much ground on rules to maintain competition.
There are just days left to finalise a deal, with an EU leaders’ summit on Thursday looming large.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin, whose country could be most affected among EU states by any no-deal scenario, welcomed the continuation of discussions.
“An agreement is in everyone’s best interests. Every effort should be made to reach a deal,” he tweeted.
‘Owe it to citizens’ –
The German government, which holds the rotating EU presidency, also welcomed the reprieve.
German MEP Manfred Weber, the head of the European Parliament’s conservative EPP group, saying it was “now or never” for a deal.
“Boris Johnson needs to make a choice between the ideology of Brexit and the realism of people’s daily lives,” he said on Twitter.
“In the middle of the Covid crisis we owe it to our citizens and businesses to find an agreement.”
ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan People’s Party in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman, has said the European Union’s decision to retain its ban on PIA in its member countries is another blow to our national airline which is a clear vote of no confidence in two years of gross mismanagement and neglect by the PTI government.
“It is rather shocking that despite the previous suspension, conditions laid down in ART 205(c)(2) of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations were not met by CAA and it appears that now the only way the ban can be lifted is by the Pakistan’s aviation regulatory body to clear a new safety audit,” she said in a statement on Saturday.
Sherry said what is questionable is the government’s inaction and flat refusal to take responsibility for landing an already troubled airline in such international disgrace. “Nobody seems to be take responsibility for this combination of criminal negligence and indifference to the squandering of our national assets,” she questioned.
She said it’s not only EASA but the US and the UK authorities who have also banned PIA. The national airline is facing a loss of millions along with being disgraced internationally.
The Senator said it has lost its coveted international routes and clearances, while a coterie of cannibalising corporate raiders look to be actively colluding to shut the airline down.
Senator Sherry Rehman said that the government should take this EU ban as a reminder that despite being banned internationally, PIA is still flying domestically, and questions will be asked about what it is doing to guarantee the safety of the lives of domestic passengers who have little option but to fly PIA.
Talking about the fake license issue, the PPP Parliamentary Leader in the Senate, said the Aviation Minister had claimed that there were 262 fake licenses but recently the Secretary Aviation told IHC that only 28 licenses were fraudulent.
She said we are still facing the aftermath of such reckless statements, but no one is made answerable in Madina ki Riasat. “In any other government many heads would have rolled, but here there is total indifference to public safety, parliamentary caution or moral obligation to be answerable to the people,” she said.
Sherry Rehman said the entire ‘Licencegate’ issue tells us that the public is on its own, that questions in Parliament mean nothing, or beget only tirades, and that the revival of PIA is part of the many false promises made to Pakistan by ‘Tabahi Sarkar’.
She said in any other country or government, those responsible would have been taken to task and would not be allowed to cover up their egregious misdemeanours. “We still must insist on an investigation as to why EASA conditions were not met,” she said.
