Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and European Council President Charles Michel discussed developments in the Eastern Mediterranean on Sunday, CNN Turk reported, according to Reuters.
NATO allies Turkey and Greece have been locked in a row over hydrocarbon exploration in the sea’s disputed waters and the extent of their continental shelves.
There was no official confirmation of the talks.
Tensions escalated last month after Turkey sent a seismic survey vessel for hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters in the region after a maritime deal between Greece and Egypt.
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Leaving the <a href="/topic/european-union" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/european-union" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Union</a> without a trade deal would still be a "good outcome" for the UK, <a href="/topic/boris-johnson" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/boris-johnson" data-vars-event-id="c23">Boris Johnson</a> has said.
In comments due to be made on Monday, the Prime Minister will tell Brussels that if no agreement can be reached by the <a href="/topic/european-council" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/european-council" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Council</a> in October, then both sides should be prepared to "accept that and move on".
The remarks are the latest in a series of statements from senior Government figures outlining a hardening stance towards the bloc.
The UK’s negotiator Lord David Frost and Foreign Secretary <a href="/topic/dominic-raab" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/dominic-raab" data-vars-event-id="c23">Dominic Raab</a> both used interviews at the weekend to vow not to back down on the remaining sticking points.
Lord Frost is due to hold another round of key negotiations in London with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, this week, as they look to find a solution to the remaining issues in order to have a deal readied for when the transition period comes to an end on December 31.
The Prime Minister will make clear on Monday that time is running out if the two sides are to ratify an agreement in time for 2021.
Boris Johnson (PA)
“We are now entering the final phase of our negotiations with the EU,” Mr Johnson is expected to say.
"The EU have been very clear about the timetable. I am too. There needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European Council on October 15 if it’s going to be in force by the end of the year.
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"So there is no sense in thinking about timelines that go beyond that point.
"If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on."
<aside class="inline-block inline-related item-count-4 align-right"><h2 class="box-title">Read more</h2>
</aside>Mr Johnson will argue that collapsing the trade talks next month would still represent "a good outcome for the UK" and that his administration was preparing for such an eventuality.
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The Prime Minister is planning to say that no-deal means the country would have a "trading arrangement with the EU like Australia’s", meaning it would fall back on trade protocols as set by the World Trade Organisation when doing business with its largest trading partner.
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"I want to be absolutely clear that, as we have said right from the start, that would be a good outcome for the UK," the Conservative Party leader will argue.
"As a Government we are preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it. We will have full control over our laws, our rules, and our fishing waters.
"We will have the freedom to do trade deals with every country in the world. And we will prosper mightily as a result.
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Dominic Raab said he would prefer to leave with a deal (PA)
“We will of course always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances.
"We will be ready to find sensible accommodations on practical issues such as flights, lorry transport, or scientific co-operation, if the EU wants to do that.
"Our door will never be closed and we will trade as friends and partners – but without a free trade agreement."
But Mr Johnson, in an apparent bid to focus minds as another set of talks gets under way on Tuesday, will say that there is "still an agreement to be had", one that is based on deals Brussels has previously struck with “Canada and so many others”.
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According to Downing Street, the Prime Minister will add: "Even at this late stage, if the EU are ready to rethink their current positions and agree this I will be delighted.
European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (PA)
“But we cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country to get it.”
Mr Raab told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that the negotiations had been “boiled down to two outstanding bones of contention” – control of UK fishing waters and the level of taxpayer support the Government will be able to provide businesses – and argued neither “principle” could not be “haggled away”.
But Mr Raab said that he would prefer to leave with a deal and that there would be “damaging impacts” felt on both sides of the Channel if no deal was reached.
The Mail on Sunday reported that Downing Street has created a transition hub, with handpicked officials across Government departments working to ensure the UK is ready to trade without a deal when the transition period ceases.
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Boris Johnson
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European Council
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<a href="/topic/dominic-raab">
Dominic Raab
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David Frost
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Michel Barnier
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Gathered virtually at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s thirty-fifth Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, governments, civil society organizations and the private sector highlighted the importance of innovation, solidarity, coherence and partnerships among and within countries.
Big data, digital economy and mobile technology will help producers achieve such transformations, Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General said on Friday, the Conference’s final day.
For instance, a smartphone in the hands of a smallholder farmer is a “new farming tool”, he added.
“Leveraging data, innovation and technology has shown that, here in Asia and the Pacific, we have brilliant minds, scientists and an entrepreneurial spirit that will lead us through the challenges presented by COVID-19 and help us conquer malnutrition and poverty,” said Mr. Qu.
Agricultural innovation can also reduce back-breaking drudgery, and regional food chains can benefit from innovations such as drones, satellite imagery, big data and block chains, the Conference heard.
The Regional Conferences, held every two years, are a platform for ministers of agriculture and senior officials, NGOs, private sector and other stakeholders in the field to explore joint and coherent solutions to shared challenges confronting food security and agriculture. The 2020 Regional Conference was held from 1 to 4 September.
According to FAO, the Asia-Pacific region – the planet’s most populous – is also home to over half of the world’s undernourished people, and the number is feared to rise, with the impact of COVID-19. In southern Asia alone, the figure could rise by a third, to some 330 million in the next decade.
Conference Chair Yeshey Penjor, Minister for Agriculture and Forests of Bhutan, reiterated the need to strengthen collaboration to deal with the challenges.
“We must prepare for higher risks ahead of us and make sure that there is sustainability in the food supply chain,” he said.
UNEP/Lisa Murray
A tea grower walks through a tea garden in Viet Nam where sustainable farming techniques are used to prevent land degradation.
Working ‘Hand in Hand’
New solutions, such as the FAO’s Hand in Hand Initiative, which “matches” stakeholders, bringing the right partners together at the right time, can help.
According to FAO, some 44 countries with limited capacity or hit by crisis have been invited to join the Initiative as beneficiaries, 80 as contributors, and some 20 have expressed interest to join as both.
The rollout of the Initiative coincided with the onset of COVID-19 and the urgent need to deal with its complex impacts on agri-food systems, said FAO, adding that the Initiative is helping support evidence-based efforts to prevent breakdown of and address emerging threats to food systems.
“The HIH approach to analysis and partnership-building has proven to be a useful model for coordinating integrated rapid response to COVID-19 impacts on food systems, particularly at the local or territorial level,” it added.
FAO Director-General Qu also said that while the COVID-19 has hit countries and societies, innovations are bringing people closer together.
“So while we are separated by some 11 time zones, we have still managed to come together, have thought-provoking discussions and reach consensus on a number of important issues,” he concluded.
… t scared of leaving the EU transition period without a … that Britain would stop following EU rules “come what may … between the UK and the EU. EU negotiator Michel Barnier warning that … word seriously.” On rejecting EU bids to continue having influence …
Tens of thousands of EU citizens resident in the UK – including some of the “heroes and heroines of the coronavirus crisis” – could be facing deportation because they have fallen through the cracks of the government’s post-Brexit settled status scheme, a group of MPs has warned.
The MPs have written to Boris Johnson calling for a legal “right to stay” to provide reassurance to more than 3 million EU nationals believed to be living in the UK.
Under the government scheme, nationals of the EU, EEA and Switzerland who have been in the UK continuously for five years can apply for settled status allowing them to remain, while others who came to the country before the end of 2020 can get “pre-settled” status which can be upgraded once they reach the five-year mark.
By the end of July, some 3.8m applications had been made and 3.6m concluded, with just over 2m people – 57 per cent of applicants – being granted settled status, 1.5m (41 per cent) pre-settled status and around 75,000 (2 per cent) classed as refused, withdrawn, void or invalid.
Signatories to the letter said the figures showed that hundreds of thousands of people would be left for up to five years after the end of the Brexit transition period in December before knowing whether they will be able to stay long-term. And they said that, even if the scheme was 98 or 99 per cent successful, the number without the right to remain at the end of 2020 could stretch into tens of thousands.
The letter, signed by Scottish National Party Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and Green MP Caroline Lucas, noted that migrants make up a large proportion of the delivery drivers, agricultural workers, supermarket staff, nurses and care home workers who kept the country running during the coronavirus lockdown.
“It should be a matter of national shame that many of the heroes and heroines of the coronavirus crisis will have been made to feel so unwelcome in this country by the tone and content of our national debate on immigration,” said the MPs.
“Millions of European migrants who live in the UK and who are now working in hospitals and supermarkets derive their right to be here from EU freedom of movement rules which the government is seeking to abolish. They are now being asked to apply for their right to stay in the UK via the settled status scheme, a process which is not guaranteed to be successful.
“Although settled status has now been granted to many EU citizens, we are extremely concerned at the prospect of some losing their status in the UK. With much of the government and third sector having been shut down by the coronavirus crisis, the applications system has been severely disrupted, as has the support system for applicants and public awareness campaigns. Unless the government acts, many thousands of people could fall through the cracks.”
They called on Mr Johnson to pass primary legislation to grant a legal right to stay to EU citizens.
Mr Blackford said: “The UK government must confirm the rights of EU nationals to remain as a matter of urgency.
“Many people risk falling through the cracks, causing uncertainty and distress for thousands of EU nationals who have made the UK their home.”
And Ms Lucas added: “The millions of EU citizens who have made their home in the UK are not just a statistic, or an economic asset – they are our neighbours, friends and families. The idea that we could allow any one of them to lose their status here should fill us with shame.
“Yet that is inevitably what will happen to thousands of people unless the settled status system is fundamentally overhauled, even if the overwhelming majority do apply successfully.
“During the EU referendum, those campaigning for Leave said that Europeans living in the UK would have a right to stay, not a right to apply to a convoluted system which might reject them. Today, we are asking that this very basic promise be honoured.”
Alena Ivanova, an organiser for the Right to Stay and Another Europe is Possible campaigns, said that the UK government had so far failed to guarantee that absences from Britain during the coronavirus crisis – when some EU nationals have been trapped abroad for lengthy periods – would not count against an applicant’s claim to have been in the country for five unbroken years.
“While the Home Office paints a rosy picture of the success of the settlement scheme, there are still millions at risk of losing their rights in the coming years,” she said.
“A system that asks you to apply to stay in your home – in some cases twice – is not what European nationals were promised.
“Even if we assume that 98 or 99 per cent of them apply successfully that would still mean tens of thousands of people facing deportation from the place they have made their home.
“Since coronavirus struck, we have had a plethora of reports of new issues which simply cannot be overcome in time – from a lack of awareness and support in the application process to periods of absence from the UK during the crisis. It’s time for the Home Office to re-assess the scheme and grant automatic status to all.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The EU settlement scheme makes it easy for EU citizens and their family members who want to stay in the UK to get the immigration status they need. It provides them with secure evidence which they can use to demonstrate their right to work, study, housing and benefits.
“There have been more than 3.8 million applications to the EU settlement scheme already and more than 3.5 million grants of status. People’s rights are secured in UK law whether they have pre-settled status or settled status.”
The UK “won’t blink” in the crucial talks on post-Brexit economic arrangements, Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost warned his EU colleagues in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, insisting that the UK would not become a “client state” of Brussels by accepting its restrictions on fishing rights and vetoes of British laws.
In his first interview since he assumed office in January, Frost stressed the EU needed to realise that Johnson’s Cabinet was adopting a more determined and balanced approach than Theresa May’s government.
“We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously”, Frost started off, adding that what Britain has of late been doing is “to get them to realise that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously”.
Lord Frost said Brussels “have not accepted that in key areas of our national life we want to be able to control our own laws and do things our way and use the freedoms that come after Brexit”, stressing the country would in no way “compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws”.
He went on to emotionally outline what being independent is about and what British people voted for:
“We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things; we are not going to accept provisions that give them control over our money or the way we can organise things here in the UK and that should not be controversial”.
Frost noted that Downing Street has been making extensive preparations to ensure that businesses and citizens are ready for the end of the transition period in any scenario – “outside the customs union, outside the single market, and outside the EU”.
“Obviously, lots of preparation was done last year, we are ramping up again and have been for some time under Michael Gove’s authority”, Frost detailed, stressing that most importantly, the UK “wants to get back the powers to control our borders”.
He said Britain isn’t ruling out any type of trade agreement:
“If we can reach an agreement that regulates trade like Canada’s, great. If we can’t, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that”, he said.
‘Re-Gripping the Agenda’ in Run-up to Eighth Round of Talks
Frost’s comments come ahead of his counterpart Michel Barnier’s arrival in London for a fresh round of talks on Tuesday.
This week’s round of talks, the eighth, marks the final phase of the negotiations, with Lord Frost’s team calling for “more realism” from the EU to break the deadlock and meet the transition period deadline for a comprehensive bilateral deal.
The bullish Brexit rhetoric is part of an attempt by Johnson’s government to “re-grip the agenda” after a tumultuous summer marked by endless U-turns on issues such as COVID policy and A-level exam grades.
The other day, Frost even issued a warning to Brussels suggesting the bloc’s demands on fishing and state subsidies could “limit the progress” potentially made next week.
EU’s Stance ‘Limiting Potential Progress’
Indicating that the UK could indeed be weighing a no-deal divorce from the EU, Frost said that London has been clear about its stance from the very beginning:
“The EU still insists we change our positions on state aid and fisheries if there are to be substantive textual discussions on anything else”.
“We will negotiate constructively but the EU’s stance may, realistically, limit the progress we can make next week”, he concluded.
Frost tweeted the comments after his European counterpart Michel Barnier said that while the UK can retain control over the waters washing its coasts, “the fish which are inside those waters” are “another story”.
The bloc has been aiming to retain access for its fishing boats, while Downing Street insists that British trawlers should by all means be given top priority.
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will not blink first in Brexit trade negotiations with the European Union and is not scared of a no-deal exit at the end of the year, the country’s top Brexit negotiator warned the bloc on Sunday.
FILE PHOTO: EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier gestures as he holds a news conference after a meeting with Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost in Brussels, Belgium August 21, 2020. REUTERS/Yves Herman/Pool/File Photo
Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but talks have so far made little headway on agreeing a new trade deal for when a status-quo transition arrangement ends in December.
“We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously,” negotiator David Frost told the Mail on Sunday.
“So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realize that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously,” he was quoted as saying.
Talks are due to resume in London on Tuesday but they have stalled over Britain’s insistence that it have full autonomy over state aid and its demands over fishing.
Britain says the EU is dragging its feet in talks and has failed to fully accept that it is now an independent country.
“We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws,” Frost told the Mail. “We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things.”
“That’s what being an independent country is about, that’s what the British people voted for and that’s what will happen at the end of the year, come what may,” Frost said.
At heart, Britain is pressing one of the EU’s most sensitive buttons – the fear that a post-Brexit Britain could become a much more agile, deregulated free-market competitor on its border by using selective state aid.
“We cannot have a situation where the UK essentially is allowed to deregulate its economy to create competitive advantage in terms of reducing the cost base of doing business or indeed providing more state aid than is available in the EU single market and therefore creates competitive advantage that it’s looking to trade into tariff-free and quota-free,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.
“Why would the EU ever facilitate that?” he said.
Frost said a lot of preparation had been done for a possible exit without a trade deal.
“I don’t think that we are scared of this at all,” Frost said. “If we can reach an agreement that regulates trade like Canada’s, great. If we can’t, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that.”
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by William Schomberg and Mark Potter
As indicated in the European Commission’s Action Plan on financing sustainable growth, issued in March 2018, the lack of a clear definition of “environmentally-sustainable economic activities” presents one of the biggest obstacles to the European Union in financing its green deal and 2050 climate neutral target.
With this in mind, on July 12, the EU taxonomy regulation entered into force with the objective of setting performance thresholds to be able to categorise environmentally-sustainable economic activities.
The EU taxonomy regulation is targeted towards three financial stakeholders: (i) financial market participants; (ii) large companies that are already required to provide a non-financial statement under the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD); and (iii) EU members states keen on issuing labels on green financial products or issuing green bonds.
The EU taxonomy regulation will apply in two stages, as of January 1, 2022, for the first two environmental objectives – climate change mitigation and adaptation; and as of January 1, 2023, for the remaining four environmental objectives ‒ water, circular economy, pollution prevention and biodiversity.
Such an EU-wide classification system for environmentally-sustainable economic activities will be developed through the European Commission issuing two delegated acts following extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders. To assist the European Commission in the development of these delegated acts, a Platform for Sustainable Finance gathering various experts and stakeholders will be created, tasked with providing advice on the EU taxonomy technical screening criteria.
The lack of a clear definition of ‘environmentally sustainable economic activities’ presents one of the biggest obstacles to the EU in financing its green deal
The first delegated act will define the technical criteria for activities that substantially contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, while not causing significant harm to any of the other EU’s environmental objectives, and will be issued by the end of 2020. The second delegated act will define the technical criteria for activities that substantially contribute to water, circular economy, pollution prevention and biodiversity by the end of 2021.
In parallel, the European Commission is currently reviewing the non-financial reporting directive (NFRD) in line with its December 2019 communication on the European Green Deal. The non-financial reporting directive requires certain large public interest companies (large listed undertakings, large banks and large insurance undertakings with more than 500 employees) to disclose information on the way they operate and manage social and environmental challenges.
The taxonomy regulation also requires all companies preparing non-financial statements under the NFRD to publish information on how and to what extent their activities are associated with environmentally-sustainable economic activities under the EU taxonomy regulation.
This would include classifying the proportion of (i) turnover generated; and (ii) capital and operational expenditure linked to activities that substantially contribute, while doing no harm, to the six environmental objectives in the taxonomy regulation. The above reporting obligations are to be implemented via a third delegated act which is expected to be adopted by the EU Commission in June 2021.
Implementing these multiple reporting obligations in a standardised format will be challenging on financial market participants. However, cumulatively, these initiatives will improve transparency in capital markets to create the required impetus to guide investors, large undertakings and financial intermediaries to enhance capital flows towards environmentally-sustainable projects. This will assist European capital markets raise the required green financing to steer Europe towards a greener economic recovery post-COVID-19.
Mark Scicluna Bartoli also sits on the Board of the European Investment Fund and is a member of the European Commission’s Mission Board on adaptation to climate change. Any views, assumptions or opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
Mark Scicluna Bartoli, Head, Bank of Valletta EU and Institutional Affairs section
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The European Commission has found Italian €199.45 million ($236 million) support in favour of Alitalia aiming to compensate the airline for the damages suffered due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager said: “This measure will enable Italy to compensate Alitalia for the damage directly suffered due to the travel restrictions necessary to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The aviation industry is one of the sectors that has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
“We continue working with Member States to find workable solutions to support companies in these difficult times, in line with EU rules. At the same time, our investigations into past support measures to Alitalia are ongoing and we are in contact with Italy on their plans and compliance with EU rules.”
Alitalia is a major network airline operating in Italy. With a fleet of over 95 planes, in 2019 the company served hundreds of destinations all over the world, carrying about 20 million passengers from its main hub in Rome and other Italian airports to various international destinations. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, Alitalia has suffered a significant reduction of its services, resulting in high operating losses.
Italy notified to the Commission an aid measure to compensate Alitalia for the damage suffered from March 1, 2020 to June 15, 2020 resulting from the containment measures and travel restrictions introduced by Italy and other destination countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The support will take the form of a €199.45 million direct grant, which corresponds to the estimated damage directly caused to the airline in that period. – TradeArabia News Service
The European Union Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Spokesperson Peter Stano has criticized the sentencing of Azerbaijani opposition leader Tofiq Yagublu. “Armenpress” introduces the text of the statement:
“On 3 September, Mr Tofiq Yagublu, Deputy Chairman of the Musavat political party was sentenced to four years and three months’ imprisonment. There are serious questions as to whether due process was observed throughout his detention and trial. While the European Union welcomes the recent registration of the Republican Alternative Party (ReAl) as a political party in Azerbaijan, the sentencing of Mr Yagublu raises questions about the authorities’ commitment to protecting and enhancing political freedoms for all.
The EU calls upon the authorities to re-examine the case of Mr Yagublu, in line with Azerbaijani’s international commitments.”
