1/ After getting tanks, military planners in Kyiv are turning their attention to what they see as the logical next step in their effort to repel Russian invaders — shipments of modern fighter jets.
politico.eu/article/ukrain… 2/ Conversations with more than half a dozen Western military officials and diplomats confirm an internal debate about supplying Ukraine with jet fighters is already underway, pushed by Ukrainian officials with support from hawkish Baltic states.

1/ Friday is a great day to look back at @POLITICOEurope series on British lawmakers' activities overseas...
First, @estwebber reported on the MPs taking gifts paid for by the Qatari government as a corruption scandal in Brussels.
politico.eu/article/uk-mps… 2/ Then, an analysis showing that a small cluster of British MPs are making foreign visits collectively worth tens of thousands of pounds every year, paid for by private companies or overseas governments with dubious human rights records.

politico.eu/article/freque…

1/ A number of UK lawmakers have been using parliamentary trips abroad as an opportunity for the covert use of sex workers and for raucous, excessive drinking.
politico.eu/article/uk-mps… 2/ Top colleague @estwebber and me spent months gathering evidence from MPs, peers, diplomats and parliamentary officials.
What we heard suggest a pattern of misbehavior among some MPs that contrasts with that of peers quietly pursuing a genuine interest in foreign relations.

Hearing the presser is being delayed to 7.45pm local time (6.45pm GMT) as the meeting between the ministers continues. @FabianPicardo is taking part via teleconference from Gibraltar.

https://twitter.com/gallardo_ortega/status/1603068386480635906

One source tells me Spain and UK have reached consensus on the "political and technical basis" for an agreement, paving the way for an EU-UK treaty.

1/ ROYAL SHUTTLE SAGA RECAP: Buckingham Palace last weekend told embassies that world leaders attending the queen’s funeral would have to leave their state vehicles in West London and take a shared coach from there to Westminster Abbey, as I revealed.
politico.eu/article/queen-… 2/ Last Monday, the prime minister’s spokesman told reporters that in some cases the ‘no car’ edict would in fact be “guidance” only, and that “arrangements for leaders, including how they travel, will vary depending on individual circumstances.”
politico.eu/article/uk-que…

Ukraine’s military recruits need training. Only one of Europe’s giants is pulling its weight.

The UK is training thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, while France helps just a handful.

With my great Paris colleague @cleacaulcutt

politico.eu/article/uk-and… Since June, the U.K. has trained nearly 5,000 Ukrainian early recruits under Operation Interflex, a program that aims to support 10,000 new soldiers within a year across a network of British training camps.

Countries of varying sizes are pushing back against a FCDO requirement that most foreign heads of state attending the queen’s funeral park travel to the event at Westminster Abbey on shared coaches.politico.eu/article/world-… Diplomats from five countries, including some within the G7 group of most industrialized nations, told POLITICO they want exceptions for their leaders, citing old age or security reasons.

💥SCOOP: Foreign heads of state and their spouses heading to London for the state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II have been asked to arrive in the U.K. on commercial flights and banned from using helicopters to get around.
politico.eu/article/queen-… World leaders have also been told they cannot use their own state cars to attend the funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19 — and will instead be bussed in en masse from a site in west London, according to documents obtained by POLITICO revealing strict protocol rules.

The EU's response to the UK's unilateral plan on the #NIprotocol has been one of "disappointment rather than anger," @JamesCleverly told MPs. The government has followed "a policy of no surprises" in regards to the UK's negotiations with the EU, he said. The government wants "to move quickly" with the legislation on the protocol. The earliest date to table the bill is the "first week back from recess," but ministers want to get it right, Cleverly adds.

A Labour government would commission yet another defense strategic review — a "rigorous assessment" of Britain's national security risks, incorporating the threats posed by Russia, Labour's Shadow Defense Secretary @JohnHealey_MP tells a Chatham House event. Boris Johnson's decision to take defense and security off the table during the Brexit negotiations means Britain has lost access to valuable Schengen security info, Healey says. The EU is emerging as a powerful force in global security so UK must rebuild its ties with the bloc.

.@TomTugendhat tells Times Radio he's speaking to his colleagues today about Boris Johnson's position as PM. The foreign affairs committee chair also said Philip Barton, the FCDO's permanent secretary, should resign over the Afghanistan evacuation debacle last August. Tugendhat argued the department leadership should have seen this coming and prepare for it.

Packed weekly edition of The Ex Files newsletter, with all you need to know on EU-UK relations:
🧪 UK is firing the starting gun on gene-editing food with a bill starting its parliamentary passage Wednesday. It marks the biggest regulatory change from EU rules since Brexit. 🇮🇪🇬🇧 The % of people in NI claiming an “exclusively Irish not British” identity has kept growing over 2020, according to a new survey.
An equal proportion of respondents (38%) believe that the UK will exist in 20 years’ time as believe that there will be a united Ireland by then.

The European Commission said a decision by Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister to halt post-Brexit checks is “unhelpful” and “creates further uncertainty and unpredictability” in the region.
politico.eu/article/cease-… The EU executive reminded that it is the responsibility of the UK government to comply with its international obligations, which include the NI checks as they are part of the Brexit divorce deal — an international treaty.

The European Commission is preparing for a partial suspension of the Northern Ireland protocol by the UK. But such a move could pose a major test of European unity.

Here’s a long thread on what might become the bumpiest months yet in the EU-UK relation:
pro.politico.eu/news/141246 The Commission’s formal response to the UK’s proposal to change the #NIprotocol is due Wednesady and will include an exception for “national identity food products,” allowing sausages and other products to enter NI from GB after the end of previously-agreed grace periods.

The UK’s refusal to grant benefits to some EU citizens who were living in the country before Brexit could amount to “indirect discrimination,” according to an opinion from the Court of Justice of the EU.

pro.politico.eu/news/uk-indire… The case concerns a Dutch-Croatian woman living in Northern Ireland whose application for Universal Credit (a UK benefit for people out of work or in low-paid jobs) was rejected by the region’s Department for Communities in June 2020. She had been granted pre-settled status.

UK government rejects reports of Russia firing "warning shots" to force a British destroyer from waters near Crimea in the Black Sea.

MoD says the Russians were undertaking a "gunnery exercise" and had given prior-warning of their activity.

No bombs dropped either, it adds.

https://twitter.com/DefenceHQPress/status/1407670812262518785

Coincidentally, the UK has just signed a deal with Ukraine to supply them with missiles and other armaments. The agreement includes the creation of a new naval base on the Black Sea as the primary fleet base for Ukraine and a new base on the Sea of Azov.

gov.uk/government/new…

This is not going to go down well north of the border:

Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should inform the UK government about their interactions with the EU, Cabinet Office Minister David Frost told the devolved administrations.

pro.politico.eu/news/136200 Frost, who has overall responsibility over the EU-UK relationship post-Brexit, argued in a letter to devolved administrations that coordination is important in order to ensure the UK gvt “can conduct its international affairs effectively in our new relationship with the EU.”

Latest scoop in the row over participation of associated countries in #HorizonEurope:
Germany and Denmark want all these countries to receive equal treatment, without pre-conditions for access to sensitive technology projects, according to a leaked email.

pro.politico.eu/news/germany-d… Germany and Denmark want the Commission to scrap all eligibility conditions for participation in space and certain quantum calls, arguing that setting these rules in the Horizon Europe's work program would “prejudice” the negotiation for the association of non-EU countries.

EU citizens are being detained and held in immigration removal centers after trying to enter the UK for work without visas or residence status, in a further blow to post-Brexit relations between Britain and the Continent.

politico.eu/article/eu-cit… #Brexit #migration EU diplomats have expressed concern about the transfer of the bloc’s nationals to immigration removal centers, where they are being held for up to seven days in some cases before being returned to their home countries.

Confirmation landed: Under the terms of the deal, João Vale de Almeida, the EU’s first ambassador to the U.K., will have a “status consistent with heads of missions of states” and will be able to present his credentials to the queen.

@ValedeAlmeidaEU

https://twitter.com/gallardo_ortega/status/1389977104536715271

This is good news for the wider diplomatic team at the EU delegation in London, who will have “the privileges and immunities needed to function effectively, while allowing for effective administration of justice,” a joint statement by @DominicRaab and @JosepBorrellF states.

Amal Clooney has resigned as special envoy on media freedom for the UK government: "It has now become untenable for me, as Special Envoy, to urge other states to respect and enforce international obligations while the UK declares that it does not intend to do so itself."

#Brexit Clooney pointed out in her resignation letter that she received no assurances from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab that any change of position is imminent, so she did not see other option but stepping down.