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Europe “will not be intimidated by anyone” on the issue of migration, an EU official has said, as thousands of migrants continue to be returned to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

Europe “will not be intimidated by anyone” on the issue of migration, an EU official has said, as thousands of migrants continue to be returned to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
Around 8,000 people got into the city on boats crammed with men, women, and children, while many others swam or even paddled across the border between Monday and Tuesday.
Spain's prime minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in the city on Tuesday, vowing to "restore order" after the thousands of migrants entered from Morocco.


Since then some 4,000 have been returned, according to the Spanish government.
The flow of migrants occurred amid a tense diplomatic standoff between Madrid and Rabat, and there have been suggestions Morocco did little to prevent it.
EU commissioner for the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, told a Spanish radio station on Wednesday morning that Europe would “not be a victim of these tactics.”
"Ceuta is Europe, this border is a European border and what is happening there is not Madrid's problem, it is the problem of all,” he said.
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From EuroNews
 
ska invita said:
I hadn't thought of that! Thanks.

Talking of which did people see this?
www.politico.eu

Everyone loves Germany’s Greens (for now)

The party is flying high in the polls and beloved by the media, but not all of its policies will likely prove popular.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
www.cnbc.com

How Germany's Greens could fill a political vacuum left by Merkel

New political trends have emerged in Germany, with the Green Party becoming a possible contender to lead Germany's next government.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
Currently Greens ahead in some polls with 5 months to an election
Could be interesting.
yes i know the voting record of the greens in germany
Click to expand...
The German Greens are the Deutsch version of Marcon. Pro-EU, culturally "progressive", anti-populist and anti-worker
The Berlin Green Party has not only joined Die Linke in campaigning for a Mietendeckel to be passed nationwide by the federal government but also in supporting another highly popular campaign for the expropriation of the largest real estate corporations in the city. Yet this prompted national cochair Habeck to speak out against a nationwide Mietendeckel in favor of a much milder rent control plan, unlikely to provide meaningful aid to the working-class families suffering rising living costs in many regions.
Click to expand...
Indeed, many of the party’s top politicians are much more comfortable with presenting themselves in terms of cultural progressivism than taking a clear stance on issues such as housing, labor rights, or the hollowed-out German welfare state. That cultural progressivism is mostly expressed through a number of rather lofty pledges of allegiance to the European idea, Western liberal democracy, and antiauthoritarianism.
Click to expand...
 
TopCat said:
www.theguardian.com

AstraZeneca did ‘not even try’ to meet Covid vaccine contract, EU tells court

Commission demands €10 per dose for each day of delay as compensation
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
The European Commission has demanded an urgent court order requiring AstraZeneca to deliver millions more vaccines to the bloc or face a hefty fine, in a case that may reflect its anger more than its need for doses.

“AstraZeneca did not even try to respect the contract,” the EU’s lawyer, Rafaël Jafferali, told a court in Brussels on Wednesday, saying the EU wanted €10 per dose for each day of delay as compensation for the company’s alleged non-compliance.

Jafferali said the penalty should apply from 1 July if AstraZeneca did not deliver at least 120m doses by the end of June and that the EU would also seek a penalty of at least €10m for each breach of the contract that the judge may eventually decide.
Click to expand...

They want an extra 120m AZ doses by the end of June, when they are not even using what has already been supplied. :hmm:
 
cupid_stunt said:
They want an extra 120m AZ doses by the end of June, when they are not even using what has already been supplied. :hmm:
Click to expand...

They've pledged to give 100m doses to poorer countries by the end of the year, I think they'd rather give away the AZ vaccines people in Europe are rejecting than Pfizer or Moderna doses.
 
I think Switzerland has just told the EU to fuck off with free movement and level playing field and so on and are now, like the U.K. a third country..?

www.euronews.com

Switzerland pulls out of negotiations to redefine relationship with EU

The Swiss Federal Council concluded on Wednesday that there remain "substantial differences between Switzerland and the EU on key aspects of the agreement", such as wage protection and state aid, and "the conditions are thus not met for the signing". #EuropeNews
www.euronews.com www.euronews.com
 
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So, Switzerland; not in the EU, but has free movement with the EU, is in Schengen, but crucially does not allow people to gain residency and then claim state benefits. Seems this is a key issue, the EU wished to push that requirement on to Switzerland and the Swiss didn't want it.

The 'level playing field' that the EU wants the UK to accept and the key reason for being such dicks regarding trade, and therefore Northern Ireland; Switzerland didn't have to align with the EU yet had access to the single market, something the EU says was impossible for the UK. Switzerland is the EU's 4th largest trading partner btw, so not some no-mark state. The EU will now set out to punish Switzerland for not wanting to give up sovereignty to the EU, they estimate their punishments will costs Switzerland €1.2bn a year, the Swiss think it's a price worth paying. Wonder how all this will pan out for touring yodellers and Alpine Horners?
 
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ska invita said:
do you know more about that? do they import things that are below EU standards like the UK is set to (hormone beef for example)?
Click to expand...

Not all of them by any means (it's a very tricky subject!), but as Switzerland is in neither the EU nor the EEA what they have instead is a series of bilateral agreements with the EU, over 100 of them, bilateral means the starting point is the EU and Switzerland are equal partners, therefore things like EU courts having supremacy are taboo, for example.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Not all of them by any means (it's a very tricky subject!), but as Switzerland is in neither the EU nor the EEA what they have instead is a series of bilateral agreements with the EU, over 100 of them, bilateral means the starting point is the EU and Switzerland are equal partners, therefore things like EU courts having supremacy are taboo, for example.
Click to expand...
Switzerland is acting in a way that meets EU trade standards - your post suggests that too i think - an option that was there for the UK too and would negate border issues. They have "harmonized" on a variety of stuff

ukandeu.ac.uk

The Swiss approach to trade with the EU - UK in a changing Europe

Professor Ambühl and Dr. Scherer discuss the Swiss approach to trade agreements with the European Union.
ukandeu.ac.uk ukandeu.ac.uk

You said "Switzerland didn't have to align with the EU yet had access to the single market, something the EU says was impossible for the UK."
That is misleading... the Swiss have de facto aligned on goods standards, and the UK had that option too.

The UK is not going down that path because it wants "new deals" aka lowering standards, which in turn make borders necessary.
 
ska invita said:
Switzerland is acting in a way that meets EU trade standards - your post suggests that too i think - an option that was there for the UK too and would negate border issues. They have "harmonized" on a variety of stuff

ukandeu.ac.uk

The Swiss approach to trade with the EU - UK in a changing Europe

Professor Ambühl and Dr. Scherer discuss the Swiss approach to trade agreements with the European Union.
ukandeu.ac.uk ukandeu.ac.uk

You said "Switzerland didn't have to align with the EU yet had access to the single market, something the EU says was impossible for the UK."
That is misleading... the Swiss have de facto aligned on goods standards, and the UK had that option too.

The UK is not going down that path because it wants "new deals" aka lowering standards, which in turn make borders necessary.
Click to expand...



www.theguardian.com

Switzerland walks out of seven-year treaty talks with EU

Swiss say terms unacceptable despite Brussels’ claims they are better than those offered to UK
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

But senior EU officials suggested they were left bemused by the attitude of the Swiss government over their demands for “dynamic alignment” with EU law, said to be necessary to ensure a “level playing field” for businesses on both sides.

“If you look at the areas where we wanted alignment with Switzerland, look at the content of the level playing field that we tried to put in place and compare it with that for the UK – while the Swiss have access to the internal market and the UK doesn’t, the level playing field aspect there is weaker,” one official said. “It was actually less than what we were demanding from the UK. Because that didn’t take account of the environment or taxation or social issues. It focused mainly on state aid.”
Click to expand...
 
The Biden administration’s newfound support for waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines could prove to be a turning point in the fight against the pandemic and a major step forward for health care access in the Global South. But before that, the effort needs to overcome a hefty roadblock: hostility from the European Union.

Any legally binding suspension of global patents on vaccines requires unanimous support from the World Trade Organization’s commission on IP rights, better known as the TRIPS Council, slated to meet June 8–9 in Geneva.

www.dailyposter.com

Big Pharma’s EU Ties Could Stymie Vaccine Waivers

Pharma giants have spent big on lobbying EU officials — now European power brokers oppose suspending global vaccine patents to fight the pandemic.
www.dailyposter.com www.dailyposter.com
 
Its always puzzled me why remainers never fought for a Swiss model rather than the disastrous second referendum campaign.
 
Pickman's model said:
Because it would obviously fail domestically as the UK would be rule takers without a seat at the discussions where rules were set. And the Swiss / EU relationship isn't really recommending that model atm
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, the second referendum campaign was a rip-roaring success which saw the UK rejoin the EU and- oh wait that never happened. Even if by some miracle the second ref campaign hadn't been sunk by the arrogance of the Centrist Dads which organised it, any rejoining of the UK with the EU would almost certainly be with the former in a junior/subordinate position in the latter, so as to avoid any danger of the wayward country of concern meaningfully influencing things.
 
NoXion said:
Meanwhile, the second referendum campaign was a rip-roaring success which saw the UK rejoin the EU and- oh wait that never happened. Even if by some miracle the second ref campaign hadn't been sunk by the arrogance of the Centrist Dads which organised it, any rejoining of the UK with the EU would almost certainly be with the former in a junior/subordinate position in the latter, so as to avoid any danger of the wayward country of concern meaningfully influencing things.
Click to expand...
Yeh but the why didn't the remain side want to be like Switzerland founders on the obvious point that remainers wanted to be in the EU and Switzerland rather clearly isn't. Had the chips fallen slightly differently in 2017 then a coalition between labour and the SNP might be in government still trying to put the second referendum on the EU, held between lockdowns at the end of 2020, behind them
 
The39thStep said:
Its always puzzled me why remainers never fought for a Swiss model rather than the disastrous second referendum campaign.
Click to expand...
Rather than because of the merits or otherwise of the Swiss model, I suggest that it was because the dominant voices within continuity Remain failed to learn anything from their loss of the Referendum, viewed everyone who voted Leave with contempt as a combination of thick/selfish/racist, and genuinely thought they could derail the whole process by crafty parliamentary manoeuvring rather than attempt any sort of compromise.

In other words, they played right into the hands of the Brexit extremists, and made it more or less inevitable that we would get the version of Brexit we're all now lumbered with.
 
smmudge said:
French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

France seizing their opportunity to try and get everyone to speak French instead of English! It's like on the Eurovision voting when everyone speaks English but the France rep will still insist on speaking in French, so no one forgets that French is an official eurovision language too.
Click to expand...


They should go with rotating languages, whoever has the presidency, they use their language for all business for that period. Only fair.
 
I’ve always admired the French on their insistence on a certain percent of music played on the radio being in French . Quite a few U.K. stars in the past would record versions of their songs in French in order to get sales and I think it shows respect for ‘when in Rome ‘ etc . Don’t know if this applies to travelling bands from the U.K. but it’s something to think about .
 
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