British Prime Minister Theresa May’s office has dismissed as “speculation” a newspaper report that suggests an all-UK customs deal will be written into the legally binding agreement governing Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

A spokesman at May’s office said Sunday that a report in the Sunday Times suggesting that the EU had agreed to include the entire United Kingdom in its customs union after Brexit was not entirely true.

“This is all speculation. The prime minister has been clear that we are making good progress on the future relationship and 95 percent of the withdrawal agreement is now settled and negotiations are ongoing,” said the spokesman.

The EU and Britain are at odds over how to treat the border between Ireland, an EU state, and Northern Ireland, a UK province, after Brexit so that there will be no return to a hard border on the island.

May has resisted EU’s plan for including Northern Ireland in its customs union for a two-year transition period and beyond that until a permanent solution is found for trade.

The premier says that will separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, insisting the EU could instead include the entire UK in the customs union as an interim solution.

British housing minister James Brokenshire said on Sunday that differences still remained on the Irish border, saying British and EU negotiators had yet to finalize a “backstop” arrangement.

“That very much remains our focus and attention in getting that deal,” Brokenshire told the BBC.

May relies on Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in her minority government. The DUP has threatened that it would stand against any Brexit deal that would include Northern Ireland in EU’s customs union.

Presstv

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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has lost an appeal against an earlier decision to send him to trial over charges of illegal campaign financing, and his lawyer said he would challenge the decision in France’s highest appeals court.

If Sarkozy stands trial, he would be the second French president in the dock since Jacques Chirac, who was president from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was given a suspended sentence in 2011 after being convicted of misusing public funds.

The so-called “Bygmalion” campaign financing affair centers on accusations that Sarkozy’s party, then known as the UMP, connived with a friendly public relations firm to hide the true cost of his 2012 presidential election campaign.

France sets limits on campaign spending, and prosecutors allege that the firm Bygmalion invoiced Sarkozy’s party rather than the campaign, allowing the UMP to spend almost double the amount permitted.

After five years in power, Sarkozy was defeated by Socialist Francois Hollande when he ran for a second term in 2012. He has since faced a series of investigations into alleged corruption, fraud, favouritism and campaign-funding irregularities.

Sarkozy has denied charges of wrongdoing and has vowed to have all cases dismissed. His lawyer said he would challenge the latest decision in France’s supreme Court of Appeal.

Under French law, a suspect is not formally charged with a crime unless he is sent to trial.

On Oct. 8, Sarkozy lost a first appeal against facing trial over separate influence peddling and corruption charges.

In that case, Sarkozy is suspected of helping a prosecutor get promoted in return for leaked information about a separate criminal inquiry.

Sarkozy lost presidential immunity from legal prosecution a month after he left office.

(Source: Reuters)

The European Commission rejected on Tuesday, October 23, Italy’s draft 2019 budget because the plan breaks EU rules in an “unprecedented” way and asked Rome to submit a new one within three weeks or it would face disciplinary action.

The decision by the European Union executive arm is the first time it exercises the power, obtained during the sovereign debt crisis in 2013, to send back a budget of a euro zone country that violates the rules.

Commission Vice President for the Euro Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference that for the first time, the Commission is obliged to request a euro area country to revise its draft budget plan.

He said the European Commission sees no alternative than to request the Italian government to do so. It has adopted an opinion giving Italy a maximum of three weeks to provide a revised draft budgetary plan for 2019.

The Commission said that the revised budget it expected to receive from Italy should be in line with the recommendation of EU finance ministers from July 13.

Italy sent a letter to the Commission on Monday, October 22, acknowledging that its draft budget was in violation of EU rules, but insisting it would still go ahead with it.

Dombrovskis added that unless Rome changes its draft budget in the next three weeks, the Commission was ready to open a disciplinary process against the country, called the ‘excessive deficit procedure’, based on the lack of progress in cutting debt — an obligation under EU law.

Prime Minister Theresa May will tell Britain’s parliament on Monday that Brexit talk are “95 percent” complete but that she cannot accept the EU’s Northern Ireland border proposals – as she faces an increasingly mutinous faction within her party.

May has been on the receiving end of a furious backlash from Brexit hardliners in her own party after indicating at an EU summit last week that she could accept a longer post-divorce implementation phase than previously envisaged.

Her shift aimed to break an impasse in negotiations between London and Brussels over how to keep the Irish border open after Brexit, by giving the two sides more time to agree their future relationship.

But it infuriated Brexiteer colleagues who fear remaining tied to the EU for years after Britain’s formal departure next March.

Several Sunday newspapers said rebellious MPs were preparing a fresh bid to topple her leadership this week, many carrying colourful off-record quotes from the plotters.

In a bid to calm passions, May will address MPs in the House of Commons on Monday where she will say the divorce deal with Brussels is nearly done.

“Ninety-five per cent of the Withdrawal Agreement and its protocols are now settled,” she will tell parliamentarians, according to a partial transcript released by her office late Sunday.

Highlighting progress in the year-long talks, she will say agreements have now been reached across a broad range of issues including with Spain on the status of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, and with Cyprus on the UK’s military bases there. “We have broad agreement on the structure and scope of the future relationship, with important progress made on issues like security, transport and services,” she will say.

Busted backstop

But on Ireland she will seek to reassure MPs in her own party that she will not bow to the EU’s current proposals.

“As I set out last week, the original backstop proposal from the EU was one we could not accept, as it would mean creating a customs border down the Irish Sea and breaking up the integrity of the UK,” she will say.

“I do not believe that any UK Prime Minister could ever accept this. And I certainly will not.” The so-called backstop is a proposal to keep either Northern Ireland or all of Britain in a customs union should future trade talks end in deadlock.

Talks have stalled over how to stop its land frontier with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, becoming a hard border again. London believes customs and other checks can be avoided through a new trade agreement with Brussels, but accepts the need for a fallback plan until that deal is agreed.

However, the two sides have so far been unable to settle the terms of this so-called backstop. France’s Europe minister Nathalie Loiseau told the BBC Sunday that the bloc needs “definitive answers, or at least no temporary measures which disappear and we don’t know what to do afterwards”.

Despite voting in favour of a split from Europe, the British public remains deeply polarised on Brexit. On Saturday more than half a million anti-Brexit protesters hit the streets of London, the largest demonstration since 750,000 people showed up against the Iraq war in 2003.

(AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of people hit London’s streets on Saturday to join the People’s Vote march, calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal.

The protest, led by young voters and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, headed to Parliament Square, where a rally was held in the late afternoon. Organisers said around 700,000 protesters attended the event.

Among the speakers who addressed the crowds, were leading remain advocates such as Khan, Chuka Umunna, Vince Cable, Caroline Lucas and Anna Soubry. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out a second referendum on Brexit.

Culled from Presstv

Visas for visitors from Britain after Brexit? “Fake news!” insisted President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, scoffing at the idea that France would ever impose such a demand on its neighbour.

“Brexit has consequences but.. we will not start (requiring) visas for UK people if there’s no deal,” he said at the end of a Brussels summit at which EU leaders made little progress in breaking the deadlock in talks.

“It is fake news, as other leaders would say!” he told reporters, speaking in English.

Taking precautions in the event that Britain and the European Union part ways without a deal “is just our responsibility”, Macron said.

“I want to reassure everybody about the day after,” he said. “I don’t want to create panic.”

“The day after, in case of a no-deal, everything will be organised with due processes, for normal life,” he said.

But there would have to be new regulations in place, he said, without giving further details.

“You will have flights, boats and people circulating and people making business with new rules, but this is precisely the only way to have a day after — with new regulation.”

“It is not good way to proceed by saying it would be a disaster in case of no deal… But in case of no deal, our responsibility is to be sure that the life of our people will not be (too) impacted.”

Earlier this month, the French government unveiled draft legislation aimed at setting out preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit which would cover British citizens living in France and French nationals in Britain.

Paris is seeking a “reciprocal” arrangement whereby both countries would treat each others’ expat citizens equally.

(AFP)

France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged his compatriots to moan less, saying the country would be better off if they emulated wartime leader Charles de Gaulle.

Macron — on a visit to the northeastern village of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, known as the home and burial place of the former president — made his comments after speaking to a pensioner who complained he only had a small pension.

“The grandson of the general (Charles de Gaulle) told me a little while ago” that his grandfather’s rule was: “You can speak freely, the only thing we should not do is to complain.”

“I think that the general had the right idea. The country would be different if everyone did the same,” Macron said.

“We don’t realise how lucky we are. We are seeing more and more elderly people in our country in good health,” he added.

Reacting on Twitter, leader of France’s far-right National Rally — formerly the National Front — Marine Le Pen, wrote: “Those who complain don’t do it just for the fun of it but because they are the victims of non-stop tax rises and endemic insecurity.”

Macron’s comments came a week after the government unveiled billions of euros in tax relief for businesses and households, alongside more budget cuts.

Pensions and welfare benefits will be shaved further in the 2019 budget — Macron complained in June that France spends “a crazy amount of dough” on social programmes.

In August, he also came under attack from the opposition after he described the French as “Gauls who are resistant to change” during a trip to Denmark.

Macron made the comments in an exchange with French expatriates in the Scandinavian country, which he admires for its economic model that mixes a strong social security system with rules allowing companies to easily fire workers.

(AFP)

Britain will end preferential access for European Union workers after Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May announced on Tuesday, saying she wanted to attract high-skilled immigrants wherever they were from.

In an announcement at her Conservative party conference, May said she would publish plans for a single system for EU and non-EU countries later this year, ahead of a bill to be published in 2019.

Immigration was a key issue in the Brexit campaign ahead of the 2016 vote to leave the bloc. May said the EU’s free movement of people will end with Brexit and “for the first time in decades, it will be this country that controls and chooses who we want to come here”.

“It will be a skills-based system where it is workers’ skills that matter, not where they come from,” she said in a statement. “It will be a system that looks across the globe and attracts the people with the skills we need.”

She added: “For too long people have felt they have been ignored on immigration and that politicians have not taken their concerns seriously enough.

“The new skills-based system will make sure low skilled immigration is brought down and set the UK on the path to reduce immigration to sustainable levels, as we promised. “At the same time we are training up British people for the skilled jobs of the future.”

The announcement follows a government-commissioned report that last month recommended a level playing field for people coming from overseas but restrictions on low-skilled workers.

May said that those wanting to live and work in Britain for the long term would need to earn a minimum salary, and would only be able to bring their family if sponsored by their future employers.

However, she conceded that immigration policy could be affected by Britain’s future trade deals. The EU may seek to negotiate continued preferential treatment in return for Britain’s access to its single market, while other countries could also seek visa waivers as part of their own trade agreements.

“The ability of people from trading partners to deliver services and student exchange programmes will form part of future trade agreements,” the prime minister said. The government has already promised to protect the rights of more than three million EU citizens currently living in Britain after Brexit, even if there is no divorce deal.

(AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron has sparked criticism over comments to an unemployed man deemed insensitive. But is it really possible, as he claimed, to find a job in a Parisian restaurant just by crossing the street?

Welcoming the public to the presidential palace on Saturday as part of an open-doors event, Macron got talking to a 25-year-old who said he was having no luck finding work as a gardener. “I send resumes and cover letters, they don’t lead to anything,” he told Macron, in a clip that quickly went viral.

Macron advised him to head to the bustling Montparnasse neighbourhood of Paris, saying he could find a job as a waiter in the blink of an eye. “If you’re willing and motivated, in hotels, cafes and restaurants, construction, there’s not a single place I go where they don’t say they’re looking for people,” he said.

“If I crossed the street I’d find you one.” The exchange ended with a handshake, but provided instant ammunition for leftist critics of Macron, a former investment banker, accusing him of being patronising and out of touch with ordinary people.

The Liberation daily went so far as to draw a comparison with the supposed suggestion by France’s last queen, Marie-Antoinette, that if the poor had no bread they should eat cake instead.

After several previous headline-grabbing encounters with members of the public, including telling off a teenager for not calling him “Mr President”, the paper advised Macron to stop “lecturing everyone”.

Elected in May 2017 on a promise to reinvigorate a sluggish economy, unemployment has yet to budge much under Macron’s pro-business policies. He is keen to encourage people to move between sectors to bring joblessness down from its current rate of 9.1 percent.

But Liberation accused Macron of “a purely technocratic vision under which if there are vacant jobs all you need to do is stick job-seekers in them, regardless of their training, their situation, or what they want to do with their lives.

“Blaming (job-seekers for their unemployment) in the style of Marie-Antoinette, that’s what is weighing this presidency down,” it concluded.

– ‘Turning customers away’ –

Yet some have sprung to Macron’s defence over his advice to the gardener, pointing out that France does indeed have a surplus of low-skilled jobs in the construction and restaurant industries.

Industry officials say there are up to 100,000 hotel and restaurant jobs that need filling in France, and have even called on Macron to grant legal status to more illegal immigrants to help cover the shortage.

Montparnasse, a commercial district whose bistrots were once favoured hangouts for the likes of Ernest Hemingway, is indeed packed with restaurants.

Many of their managers say they are chronically short-staffed, suffering high turnover due to high pressure and unsociable hours.

“We sometimes have to refuse customers or groups because we don’t have enough workers,” said the maitre d’ at La Rotonde, the upmarket restaurant where Macron celebrated winning the first round of the presidential election. Declining to give his name, he added however that the restaurant was selective in its hiring.

“We’re looking for serious people. They have to want to work,” he said. Jose Vicente, a waiter at the nearby Kibaloma cafe, said “absolutely”, restaurant jobs were available, although contrary to Macron’s words “you can’t just cross the road to find one”.

“Not everyone is cut out for it,” said Vicente, who has been waiting tables for 30 years. Those who turn up looking for work are usually aspiring dish-washers — mostly immigrants who “don’t have qualifications and don’t speak French properly”, Vicente said.

The latest controversy comes as Macron’s ratings have slumped, weighed down by a scandal over a former bodyguard and with economic growth set to come in at a lower-than-expected 1.6 percent this year. A Kantar Sofres Onepoint poll released Monday found only 19 percent had a positive view of the president.

Source: France 24