Tweet

Katya Adler

12 Oct, 10 tweets, 2 min read

Little appetite in EU capitals for trade war with UK. Berlin focussing on building new government, Everyone worrying about gas prices. Lord Fost’s Lisbon speech is no game changer for the EU, it seems BUT tensions over NIreland Protocol are very real /1

EU and UK agree the Protocol hasnt been working in many ways on the ground. Tomorrow the EU will unveil what it calls practical solutions to concrete problems - Ways to reduce checks on goods and animal products (eg sausages!), ensuring medicines travel smoothly GB-NI and /2

EU will I’m told undertake to engage more w the authorities as well as business + civil society in NIreland. EU will underline tomorrow these are proposals to help people of NIreland. Brussels keen not to be seen to bend to what one EU diplomat described to me as “bullying /3

tactics by UK gov” EU-UK relations are pretty bad tempered currently over the Protocol. In Brussels I’m told not to expect the EU to engage tomorrow on Lord Frost’s request to scrap the oversight role the ECJ - European Court of Justice - has /4

in the Protocol . EU figures describe this as a red line . They say Protocol is no trade deal. NIreland is part of UK. It is not in EU BUT /5

To avoid having a hard customs border post Brexit on the island of Ireland, NIreland has remained in the EU customs union and its single market for goods. The ECJ is ultimate authority when comes to implementing EU law so EU says its removal from Protocol is a red line HOWEVER /6

A compromise solution down the line could be à la Switzerland’s relationship with EU where there is another layer of oversight before the ECJ, thereby putting it at a distance .. /7

But would UK government agree even if the EU proposed that eventually?? Things have potential to get a lot messier but for now both EU and Lord Frost say they’re open for discussion.. /8

EU assumption is that even if talks go badly, UK would be unlikely to take action like suspending (parts of) the Protocol before end of International COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Assumption is that PM would not want headlines there dominated by a row with EU and/or /9

Concerns over peace process in NIreland. This afternoon Lord Frost called for ambition and work with the EU to agree “a better way forward”. EU calling for constructive dialogue. Let’s see.. /10

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @BBCkatyaadler

Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

26 Sep

Voting has begun in Germany to elect a new parliament (polls open 8am – 6pm CET). It’s almost the end of the Merkel era in German politics after 16 years as Chancellor BUT .. #GermanElection2021 /1

Today’s vote is just stage one in the process to form Germany’s next government. The country is preparing itself for lengthy and possibly fractious coalition negotiations. Angela Merkel will remain caretaker chancellor in the interim /2

The What Next after Merkel has proved hard to predict. Race to replace her is expected to be tight: between Armin Laschet a Europhile conservative from her CDU party and Olaf Scholz – a centrist Social Democrat + Germany’s current Finance Minister. The Green Party is tipped.. /3

Read 5 tweets

Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

9 Apr

Across Europe, royal family members and heads of state have been expressing their condolences. Prince Philip‘s ‘Europe Connection’ dates from the very beginning #PrincePhilip /1

Born in 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu, his father was Prince Andrew of Greece and mother, the Princess Alice of Battenberg. That heritage made him a prince of Greece and Denmark BUT 1922 the family was banished from Greece after a coup.. /2

A British warship then carried them to safety in Italy, with baby Philip reportedly dozing in a makeshift fruit crate cot. Today the Italian President said Prince Philip “always showed sincere friendship towards the Italian people” during his visits to their country /3

Read 10 tweets

Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

22 Mar

Latest YouGov poll suggests in EU ‘Big Four’ - Italy, Spain, Germany, France - more people believe the AstraZeneca jab to be unsafe than safe. A big drop over 2 weeks #covid /1

This follows the recent suspension of the AZ rollout in over 15 European countries as alleged links between the jab and rare blood clots in the brain were examined. The European Medicines Agency has since declared the jab safe. US clinical trials have now suggested the same.. /2

EU leaders are queuing up to say they’d have - or are having - the AZ vaccine in order to try to boost public confidence but it appears a lot of damage has been done AND YET the EU needs the AZ jab as part of its vaccine rollout - already way behind U.K. and US /3

Read 10 tweets

Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

15 Mar

The EU has started formal legal action against the UK over the government decision to unilaterally delay checks on some goods coming into NIreland from Great Britain. The European Commission accuses the U.K. of breaking international law - the Brexit deal signed by both sides /1

Today the PM said the decision to delay some border checks constituted “temporary and technical measures” which were “very sensible.” Downing Street has said the move was “lawful and necessary” to ensure food continues to flow onto supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland /2

The EU case could lead to a judgment by the European Court of Justice, even though the UK has left the EU. The case is likely to take months or years to process and could result in a fine or sanctions imposed on British goods /3

Read 4 tweets

Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

4 Mar

EU official dismisses attempts to “try to make the EU look like the bad guys for blocking the export of vaccines from pharma companies that haven’t honoured their contractual obligations with the EU” /1

Defending Italy’s controversial move today to bloc 250,000 AZ vaccines going to Australia, the official said “Zero” AstraZeneca vaccines had been exported to EU from the 2 factories in the U.K. He added that US had a de facto ban on vaccine exports in place but /2

He said the EU allowed many exports of vaccines out of the bloc. He countered my question about whether blocking exports wld damage the EU’s reputation internationally and insisted “other countries” (outside EU) were skilled at glossing over their own de facto export bans /3

Read 4 tweets

Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

2 Feb

Angela Merkel has just admitted on German public broadcaster ARD that it ‘rankles’ that U.K., US and Israel are vaccinating faster than EU countries but she insisted that nothing went wrong with the bloc’s procurement of vaccines /1

Britain, she said, had given an emergency approval to the Astra Zeneca vaccine within 24 hours but the EU had decided against that because, she said, countries depended on the trust of their citizens /2

Chancellor Merkel said in interview the EU wouldn’t have got more vaccines if it had offered more money to pharmaceutical companies. She said every vaccine is welcome in the EU as long as it’s approved by the European Medicines Agency /3

Read 5 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!