new european times

Category: Politics

  • UK completes its economic break from the European Union, ending five-decade partnership and turning the page on Brexit

    UK completes its economic break from the European Union, ending five-decade partnership and turning the page on Brexit

  • Britain completes formal economic break with European Union


    • People raise a glass and celebrate in Parliament Square as the bell known as Big Ben strikes 2300, and Britain ends its transition period and formally leaves the European Union in London, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions on gatherings people were moved on by police if they met in any number . less
      People raise a glass and celebrate in Parliament Square as the bell known as Big Ben strikes 2300, and Britain ends its transition period and formally leaves the European Union in London, Thursday, Dec. 31, … more


      Photo: Matt Dunham, AP


    Photo: Matt Dunham, AP

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    People raise a glass and celebrate in Parliament Square as the bell known as Big Ben strikes 2300, and Britain ends its transition period and formally leaves the European Union in London, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions on gatherings people were moved on by police if they met in any number . less
    People raise a glass and celebrate in Parliament Square as the bell known as Big Ben strikes 2300, and Britain ends its transition period and formally leaves the European Union in London, Thursday, Dec. 31, … more



    Photo: Matt Dunham, AP



    LONDON (AP) — Britain’s long and sometimes acrimonious divorce from the European Union ended Thursday with an economic split that leaves the EU smaller and the U.K. freer but more isolated in a turbulent world.

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        Britain left the European bloc’s vast single market for people, goods and services at 11 p.m. London time, midnight in Brussels, completing the biggest single economic change the country has experienced since World War II. A different U.K.-EU trade deal will bring new restrictions and red tape, but for British Brexit supporters, it means reclaiming national independence from the EU and its web of rules.

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        Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose support for Brexit helped push the country out of the EU, called it “an amazing moment for this country.”

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    “We have our freedom in our hands, and it is up to us to make the most of it,” he said in a New Year’s video message.

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        The break comes 11 months after a political Brexit that left the two sides in the limbo of a “transition period” — like a separated couple still living together, wrangling and wondering whether they can remain friends. Now the U.K. has finally moved out.

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    It was a day some had longed for and others dreaded since Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU, but it turned out to be something of an anticlimax. U.K. lockdown measures to curb the coronavirus curtailed mass gatherings to celebrate or mourn the moment, though a handful of Brexit supporters defied the restrictions to raise a toast outside Parliament as the Big Ben bell sounded 11 times on the hour.

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    A free trade agreement sealed on Christmas Eve after months of tense negotiations ensures that Britain and the 27-nation EU can continue to buy and sell goods without tariffs or quotas. That should help protect the 660 billion pounds ($894 billion) in annual trade between the two sides, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on it.

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        But companies face sheaves of new costs and paperwork, including customs declarations and border checks. Traders are struggling to digest the new rules imposed by the 1,200-page trade deal.

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        The English Channel port of Dover and the Eurotunnel passenger and freight route braced for delays as the new measures were introduced, though the pandemic and a holiday weekend meant cross-Channel traffic was light, with only a trickle of trucks arriving at French border posts in Calais as 2020 ended. The vital supply route was snarled for days after France closed its border to U.K. truckers for 48 hours last week in response to a fast-spreading variant of the virus identified in England.

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    The British government insisted that “the border systems and infrastructure we need are in place, and we are ready for the U.K.’s new start.”

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        But freight companies were holding their breath. Youngs Transportation in the U.K. suspended services to the EU until Jan. 11 “to let things settle.”

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        “We figure it gives the country a week or so to get used to all of these new systems in and out, and we can have a look and hopefully resolve any issues in advance of actually sending our trucks,” said the company's director, Rob Hollyman.

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        The services sector, which makes up 80% of Britain’s economy, does not even know what the rules will be for business with the EU in 2021. Many of the details have yet to be hammered out. Months and years of further discussion and argument  over everything from fair competition to fish quotas lie ahead as Britain and the EU settle into their new relationship as friends, neighbors and rivals.

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        Hundreds of millions of individuals in Britain and the bloc also face changes to their daily lives. Britons and EU citizens have lost the automatic right to live and work in the other’s territory. From now on, they will have to follow immigration rules and obtain work visas. Tourists face new headaches including from travel insurance and pet paperwork.

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        For some in Britain, including the prime minister, it’s a moment of pride and a chance for the U.K. to set new diplomatic and economic priorities. Johnson said the U.K. was now “free to do trade deals around the world, and free to turbocharge our ambition to be a science superpower.”

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        Conservative lawmaker Bill Cash, who has campaigned for Brexit for decades, said it was a “victory for democracy and sovereignty.”

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        That’s not a view widely shared across the Channel. In the French president’s traditional New Year’s address, Emmanuel Macron expressed regret.

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        “The United Kingdom remains our neighbor but also our friend and ally,” he said. “This choice of leaving Europe, this Brexit, was the child of European malaise and lots of lies and false promises.”

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        The divorce could also have major constitutional repercussions for the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member Ireland, remains more closely tied to the bloc’s economy under the divorce terms, a status that could pull it away from the rest of the U.K.

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        In Scotland, which voted strongly in 2016 to remain, Brexit has bolstered support for separation from the U.K. The country’s pro-independence First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.”

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        Many in Britain felt apprehension about a leap into the unknown that is taking place during a pandemic that has upended life around the world.

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        “I feel very sad that we’re leaving,” said Jen Pearcy-Edwards, a filmmaker in London. “I think that COVID has overshadowed everything that is going on. But I think the other thing that has happened is that people feel a bigger sense of community, and I think that makes it even sadder that we’re breaking up our community a bit, by leaving our neighbours in Europe.

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        “I’m hopeful that we find other ways to rebuild ties,” she said.

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        Associated Press writers Renee Graham in London and John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed to this report.

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        Follow all AP stories on Brexit at <a href="https://apnews.com/Brexit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://apnews.com/Brexit</a>

  • APPG statement on EU’s Special Envoy on FoRB

    The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) urges the European Commission to renew the mandate of the Special Envoy on FoRB outside the EU.

    Dr Ján Figel was appointed the European Commission’s first Special Envoy for the promotion of FoRB outside the EU, following a resolution adopted by the European Parliament in February 2016.

    The mandate has served as a focal point for promoting FoRB outside the EU, with Dr Figel working alongside the European External Action Service, civil society, religious leaders and governments. Dr Figel has also served as Special Adviser to the Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development and he has worked extensively with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on FoRB, and the UN Deputy Secretary General responsible for Genocide Prevention, as well as his counterparts in European governments and in the US.

    The unique position of the EU Special Envoy has enabled him to be viewed as a neutral broker by many countries. This fact has been instrumental in helping to foster dialogue and make effective interventions. For example, in assisting with the release of Asia Bibi, who spent years on death row in Pakistan due to an unfounded blasphemy allegation. Czech national Petr Jašek, who was jailed alongside two Sudanese pastors and a FoRB activist, also acknowledged Dr Figel’s important role in securing his freedom.

    The Special Envoy has demonstrated how FoRB can be promoted and protected effectively through the European Union’s external action. This helps to explains why, on 15 January 2019, the European Parliament renewed its support for the Special Envoy in its resolution on the “EU guidelines and the mandate of the EU Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion outside the European Union”.

    Dr. Figel’s mandate has now expired. The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief urges the European Commission to renew his mandate in order to protect and promote FoRB outside the EU.

  • Europe Day AD 2020 comes at a time of great test for the Union – Message of EPP President Donald Tusk

    by EPP

    Seventy years ago, Robert Schuman published his Plan for Europe which led to the creation of the European Union. Today, the need for unity of our continent seems even more evident. With all its flaws and errors, the Union is the only real alternative to the Europe of egoisms, conflicts, poverty and oppression.

    We are living in the time of pandemic, which makes us realize with full force and clarity the importance of enhanced cooperation and coordination of our actions. Nationalists are excellent at creating problems and completely helpless when it comes to solving them. No country on its own, will solve on a national level, none of the great challenges of the XXIst century: the pandemic, migration, climate crisis or the environmental catastrophe.

    Today, Europeans need to confront more than one plague. We have been attacked by the Coronavirus, and the fight against it is our highest priority today, but it is accompanied also by the viruses we already know: lies, fear, hatred, doubting the sense of our values: unity, solidarity, democracy, rights of individuals and minorities, freedom of speech and the rule of law.

    Europe Day anno domini 2020 comes at a time of great test. And it depends on us, Europeans, whether the Union will survive the coming crisis, perhaps the gravest in our history. But we must care, care deeply, otherwise the grimmest prophesies of fatalists and the ominous dreams of our enemies about the division and collapse of Europe will be fulfilled. Today, we need the imagination, determination and the courage of our Founding Fathers.

    And then, like them, we can also win.

  • Everything You Wanted to Know About carnivals

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