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.
Britain, European Union work on ‘large gaps’ before time runs out for post-Brexit deal
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
European Union agrees on $2 trillion package — but fudges deal on rule of law
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.
The EU reached an agreement on the package back in July, but member states had since struggled to unanimously agree on the conditions attached to receiving funds.
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.
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“GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE”: THE FIRST READ FOR PIXELS CHARITY ANTHOLOGY
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