Monthly Archives: November 2018

What is the Brexit deal? Theresa May’s controversial agreement with the EU explained

Theresa May has secured a draft Brexit agreement with Brussels after months of wrangling.

The prime minister cleared the first hurdle when the cabinet backed her Brexit blueprint after a fiery five-hour meeting on Wednesday.

However Ms May’s future was thrown into doubt by the resignations of two cabinet ministers and several ministers, amid a furious backlash from Brexiteer Tories and some Remainers.

1 What is the Brexit deal?
Senior officials in Brussels and London have come up with a 585-page draft agreement, which will form the legal basis for Brexit.

Known as the withdrawal agreement, the long-awaited document is the result of 18 months of intense talks to sort out key issues around the UK’s exit from the European Union.

It covers the main parts of the UK-EU relationship, from citizens’ rights and the divorce bill, to the Irish border.

Both sides have been forced to make concessions to get to this point and talks have ground to a halt many times, particularly over the threat of a frontier in Northern Ireland, which has prompted fears of a return to violence at the border.

2 Will Brexit deal be approved by MPs?
The prime minister secured the backing of the cabinet for the deal, so she now needs to get it past the EU and MPs – under so-called meaningful vote in the Commons in December.

It is looking increasingly unlikely that Ms May can win parliamentary backing for her Brexit blueprint.

The magic number May needs is 320 – more than half of the remaining 639 MPs, once the abstentionist Sinn Fein politicians and the Speaker and his deputies are discounted

After losing her parliamentary majority in the snap general election, the Tories hold 315 seats, Labour has 257 and the SNP are on 35.

May then entered into a “confidence and supply” deal with the Democratic Unionist Party, which has 10 MPs, giving her a working majority of 13.

Simple, right? Wrong.

The DUP are in open revolt and some 80 hardline Tory Brexiteers could be ready to vote against it. Conservative remain backers – around 8 MPs – have also spoken out against the deal.

The PM could be forced to find up to 100 MPs from elsewhere, though that number may be whittled down by the whips.

But the SNP and the Liberal Democrats are pro-Europe, and Labour is due to vote against it, so she may struggle to make up the numbers.

3 What does the Brexit deal mean for UK citizens living in Europe?
Protecting citizens rights has been a key issue as more than 3 million EU citizens live in the UK and 1 million UK nationals reside in European countries.

The agreement safeguards the existing rights of UK citizens who were living in the EU up to the end of the transition period and vice versa. Family members will be able to join them, as under current rules. Children born after Brexit will also be covered.

However it does not clear up questions over “onward movement” for Britons who might want to move to another EU country from the one they are living in after Brexit.

It also doesn’t cover what happens to people who want to work in different countries, which is one of the main concerns for British nationals living in the EU.

4 What does the Brexit deal mean for the Irish border?
The Irish border has been the most difficult issue to square for negotiators.

Ms May has promised to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic amid fears it could herald a return to violence and threaten the peace process.

The agreement includes a “backstop”, which would keep the whole of the UK within a customs union with the EU to prevent the need for a endless checks at the border.

The backstop is a type of safety net. It comes into force after the end of the transition period and will stay in place until Brussels and London come up with a better plan.

Northern Ireland would also stay aligned to parts of the EU’s single market, so goods coming in would need to be checked to see if they meet EU rules. Goods going in the other direction would not have the same checks.

None of this is popular with Brexiteers or the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as they fear it keeps the UK too closely tied to Brussels.

(15. 11. 2018 via independent.co.uk)

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Austria believes one of its senior military officers spied for Russia

Austria’s Foreign Minister, Karin Kneissl, has cancelled a trip to Moscow over allegations that one of its senior military officers spied for Russia for decades.

Kneissl also summoned Russian diplomats to the foreign ministry to clarify the situation after the allegations were outlined by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (pictured above) in Vienna on Friday.

He announced that a recently retired colonel was believed to have spied for Moscow from the 1990s until this year.

Austria is regarded by some as Moscow’s closest ally in the EU and Russian President Vladimir Putin even danced with Kneissl at her wedding in August.

The country was also in the minority of EU countries that did not expel any Russian diplomats over the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain, which London has blamed on Moscow. Russia denies any involvement.

Conservative Chancellor Kurz, who governs in coalition with the far-right and pro-Moscow Freedom Party, has said that decision was in line with Austria’s neutrality and a tradition of maintaining good relations with countries on both sides of the former Iron Curtain. Vienna is a major diplomatic centre hosting many foreign officials.

But Kurz hardened his tone on Friday:

“If the suspicion is confirmed, such cases… do not improve relations between Russia and the European Union,” he told reporters, without naming the suspect. The case has been referred to prosecutors and the former colonel has been questioned.

“For the moment we are demanding transparent information from the Russian side,” Kurz said.

Moscow “unpleasantly” surprised
Reacting the news in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he was “unpleasantly surprised” by Vienna’s allegations and Moscow knew nothing about the retired officer, news agencies RIA and Interfax reported.

Kurz repeatedly referred to a recent case in the Netherlands in which the government said Russian agents tried to hack into the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons while it was investigating the Skripal case.

Western countries last month issued coordinated denunciations of Russia for running what they described as a global hacking campaign.

“Based on the information we have, but also because of recent events for example in the Netherlands, we can very much assume at the moment that our suspicion will be confirmed,” said Kurz, who has met Putin in Austria twice since the Skripal poisoning.

It is not yet clear whether the case is an isolated one, Defence Minister Mario Kunasek said, speaking alongside Kurz.

Austria was tipped off about the case weeks ago by an ally’s intelligence service, and issues of interest to the officer or his alleged handlers included weapons systems and migration into Europe, Kunasek added.

(09. 110 2018 via euronews.com)

No increased threat to Poland from Russia-Ukraine crisis: defence minister

There are no signs that a naval standoff between Ukraine and Russia poses an increased threat to Poland, the defence minister in Warsaw said on Monday.

Mariusz Błaszczak was speaking after Russia on Sunday seized three Ukrainian navy ships near the annexed Crimea peninsula, in what international news agencies have described as the most dangerous crisis between Moscow and Kiev in years.

The Ukrainian navy said on Sunday that several Ukrainian sailors were injured after Russian forces opened fire on the vessels in the Kerch Strait, a narrow body of water separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov and dividing Crimea from southern Russia.

Polish national security “services have not reported an increased level of threat to Poland as a result of the situation in Ukraine,” Błaszczak said after conferring with top military and security chiefs in Warsaw on Monday.

He also told a news conference that he had instructed military commanders and state agency chiefs “to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis and to report continually on how it develops.”

Błaszczak noted that both Ukraine and Russia were Poland’s neighbours.

“So what is happening in eastern Ukraine also affects the situation in Poland,” he said.

Błaszczak also said that “the Polish government opposes any actions that violate international order and constitute breaches of international law.”

The Polish foreign ministry has urged Russia to respect international law and condemned Moscow’s “aggressive actions”.

Amid escalated tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the foreign ministry in Warsaw called in a statement for restraint on both sides.

The “situation in the Sea of Azov” is “serious” and may have far-reaching implications for both Ukraine and the entire region, the Polish president’s chief of staff said on Monday.

Russia’s FSB security service said the Ukrainian ships had entered Russian territorial waters illegally.

A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry has accused the Ukrainian authorities of “provocation.”

(26. 11. 2018 via thenews.pl)

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Soros and Kurz Discuss CEU’s Future in Vienna

György Soros met Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Sunday to discuss the displacement of Central European University from Budapest to Vienna.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz met with US investor and philanthropist George Soros to discuss how to resettle the Soros-funded Central European University (CEU) in Vienna after it was forced to leave Hungary, Austrian daily Kurier reported.

Postgraduate courses in political science, journalism and international relations may be available in Vienna from the following winter semester.

Soros and Kurz discussed matters of foreign policy including migration and Brexit. Although they hold quite different stances, a statement from Kurz’s office says “it is important to talk to people with whom we do not agree on everything.”

The two reportedly agreed that Brexit is regrettable and that a hard Brexit must be avoided. Meanwhile, according to the EUobserver, the pair had “quite different views” on migration policy.

Soros will meet with Heinz Fassmann, the Austrian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research, on Monday to talk about technical issues such as accrediting CEU diplomas in Austria and moving university staff from Budapest to Vienna.

(11. 19. 2018 via hungarytoday.hu)

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Kremlin spokesman blasts Polish PM’s statement on Nord Stream 2: report

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has criticised a statement made by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline being built to link Russia with Germany, according to a report.

In a conference speech in Hamburg on Saturday, Morawiecki said that the construction of the planned pipeline was a major issue in the context of European security, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

He said, as quoted by PAP: “I know that according to the German government it is a business project but no one east of the Oder river [dividing Germany and Poland] believes that.”

According to Morawiecki, the pipeline is a dangerous initiative from Poland’s perspective, PAP reported.

It cited Morawiecki as saying that Moscow was for now dependent on Ukraine for gas transfers, but once Nord Stream 2 is constructed and the Ukrainian gas transit system is no longer needed, “what will stop [Russian President] Vladimir Putin from marching into Kyiv?”

Peskov said that Morawiecki’s statement was “unfortunate,” according to PAP.

Peskov reiterated the oft-repeated argument by the Russian authorities that Nord Stream 2 was a “commercially viable” and “economically justified” project. He added that liquefied gas from countries such as the United States would be more expensive, PAP reported.

The 1,200-kilometre Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is scheduled for completion in 2019, is expected to supply around 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, circumventing Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine.

(19. 11. 2018 via thenews.pl)

Poland’s ruling conservatives way ahead of opposition: survey

Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and its allies are backed by 42 percent of voters, double the support for the country’s largest opposition party, according to a new poll.

The figures are for voters who say they would take part in parliamentary elections.

The survey by pollster CBOS found the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, which headed the previous government, is supported by 21 percent.

The rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL) is third on 7 percent, the Kukiz’15 grouping on 6 percent and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) on 5 percent, the poll found.

Other parties would not exceed the 5 percent threshold needed to make it into the Polish parliament, according to the poll.

The survey was carried out between November 8 and 15 on a sample of 1,051 adults respondents.

(17. 11. 2018 via thenews.pl)

 

Szijjártó in Talks with Austrian Officials on Moves to Tighten Border Controls

Hungary’s foreign minister met leaders of Austrian towns located along the Hungary-Austria border and discussed their plans to introduce border restrictions.

At a meeting in Győr, in western Hungary, Péter Szijjártó assured local leaders that he would do everything possible to ensure that “the current situation is resolved in a reassuring manner”, according to a ministry statement.

Later in the day, Szijjártó met Hans Niessl, governor of the Austrian province of Burgenland, in Kismarton (Eisenstadt).

Crossing by car to Austria continues to be unrestricted at 29 out of the 39 border crossing points whereas crossing options at the remaining ten will be discussed by a joint working group next week, Szijjártó told a press conference after the meeting.

Hungary has enacted measures to prevent illegal entry, he said, and insisted that Austria would not need to put any further restrictions in place at its borders.

The foreign minister said that the two countries have won EU funds to develop five additional border crossing points at one of which preparations for a rail link were under way.

(8. 11. 2018 via hungarytoday.hu)1280

Falling numbers of migrants ‘creating shortage of skilled workers in Britain’

The shortage of skilled workers is getting worse amid a “sudden reversal” in the numbers of EU and non-EU migrants in employment in this country, according to a new report.

Research among more than 1,000 employers suggested that vacancies were becoming harder to fill.

The squeeze on skills is leading employers to increase pay rates, said the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Adecco Group.

Their report said the shortage of workers is being driven by a falling interest among migrants wanting to work in the UK.

Gerwyn Davies, of the CIPD, said: “The data implies that the pendulum has swung away from the UK as an attractive place to live and work for non-UK-born citizens, especially non-EU citizens, during a period of strong employment growth and low unemployment.

“This has heightened recruitment difficulties for some employers. It also underlines the risk that more non-UK-born citizens and employers will be discouraged from using the post-Brexit system if more support is not provided and it is not made simpler, fairer and more affordable; especially for lower-skilled roles.

“Against the backdrop of a tight labour market, failure to do this will heighten recruitment difficulties and could lead to negative consequences for existing staff, such as higher workloads, and loss of business or orders for firms.”

Alex Fleming of the Adecco Group added: “The labour market in the UK is tight and this research is reporting increasingly high levels of recruitment and retention difficulties.

“While the data is not showing wages rising across the board, we are regularly seeing this pressure being exerted in the recruitment space.”

(11. 11. 2018 via telegraph.co.uk)

Poland celebrates independence centennial

Top Polish officials were taking part in day-long events on Sunday as Poland marked a century of regained independence after a more than 120-year absence from the map of Europe.

Ahead of the ceremonies, President Andrzej Duda said Independence Day in Poland would be marked with “pride and joy”.

Meanwhile, in an address to Poles, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poland could be proud of having passed during its troubled history “the test of humanity, sacrifice and solidarity.”

He added that Poles should unite, and commit to making their country stronger and happier.

The prime minister and president were set to join other top officials on Sunday in laying wreaths at the grave of Ryszard Kaczorowski, Poland’s last president-in-exile, and at monuments to Józef Piłsudski, Wincenty Witos, Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Paderewski, statesmen, leaders and fathers of Polish independence.

Officials were to take part in a Catholic Mass dedicated to Poland’s regained independence and in a special changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.

The day’s events were to culminate in what has been called a White-and-Red March, a parade through the streets of Warsaw organised by Polish officials which the public has been invited to attend.

The Polish president was scheduled to give a number of speeches throughout the day.

Other events commemorating the day include an annual 10-kilometre run. A record 20,000 people have signed up to take part in the event this year, and all runners have been issued either white or red jerseys and will form a giant Polish flag at the starting line.

The Polish parliament will be open for visitors on Sunday.

An Independence Festival will be held across three stages in the Polish capital featuring concerts and dance performances.

Special concerts and other events will be taking place across Poland and around the world.

Poles have been gearing up for the anniversary for months, with schools in Poland and those catering to the Polish diaspora abroad organising exhibitions and performances, and embassies around the world also holding events.

The Polish embassy in Athens has fitted out Polish participants in the Athens Marathon on Sunday with commemorative jerseys, while a school near the embassy in Washington staged a patriotic performance.

On Saturday in Warsaw, 40,000 people attended a concert at the National Stadium, where folk artists and pop stars performed Polish music from throughout the last century. The concert culminated with a performance of the Polish National Anthem.

On November 11 in 1918 – the same day as an armistice was signed to end WWI – Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski arrived in Warsaw after being held prisoner in Germany and announced Poland’s independence after more than 120 years of partitions and foreign rule.

(11. 11. 2018 thenews.pl)letöltés

Ex-Foreign Minister Writes Open Letter to Juncker: Giving Autonomy to Hungarians in Romania Would Be Cause for European Celebration

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the democratically elected Hungarian government of the 90’s, Géza Jeszenszky, wrote an open letter to Jean-Claude Juncker. Jeszenszky shared his opinion about the tension over Juncker’s speech in the European Parliament.

Two weeks ago Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, told Romanian President Klaus Iohannis that he considers the Romanian national holiday commemorating the unification with Transylvania to also be a European celebration.

In the letter, Jeszenszky reminds Juncker that the organizers of the event, the Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia) National Assembly, have promised “Full national freedom for all the co-inhabiting peoples. Each people will study, manage and judge in its own language by individual of its own stock and each people will get the right to be represented in the law bodies and to govern the country in accordance with the number of its people.”

Jeszenszky thinks these conditions haven’t been implemented by Romania since. Moreover, the Romanian constitution and laws forbid them. Therefore, he asserts that if the state would guarantee the rights it promised 100 years ago and give autonomy to Szeklerland, then it would truly be a great moment in European history. The former Foreign Minister thinks that Juncker and the European Commission could greatly assist in achieving this goal.

The Ex-Minister also noted that these acts, unfortunately, cannot bring back the minorities—including Juncker’s nation the Saxons (German settlers of Transylvania who arrived in the 13th century)—that left Romania throughout the last 100 years, were deported to the Soviet Union or sold to Western Germany during the Cold War by Nicolae Ceau?escu. To emphasize the drastic change, the former Minister and historian pointed out that the number of German minorities living in Romania has decreased from 700 thousand to just 30 thousand.

(6. 11. 2018 via https://hungarytoday.hu)

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