The European Council on Foreign Relations has been very active in recent days.
UK-EU negotiations
UPDATED: UK, EU agree Windsor Framework on Northern Ireland
Prime minister Rishi Sunak and European commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced an agreement in principle over how the protocol on Northern Ireland included in the EU-UK Withdrawal agreement is to function.
Week in London: Chile deal upgrade, medical duty suspensions, fish war script in TCA
Hello, this is Iana Dreyer, stepping in for Chris Horseman this week. This was another familiar week in the politics of EU-UK post-Brexit trade relations, with Northern Ireland and access to fishing waters along the Channel Islands dominating the news. We shall come back to Northern Ireland. In the meantime, …
Gibraltar: UK rejects EU customs union and tax alignment requests
The post Brexit settlement of the matter of Gibraltar, the tiny territory at the tip of the Iberian peninsula whose status was always a sore point between the United Kingdom and Spain, was postponed by negotiators in 2020 focused on getting the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between Brussels and London …
In brief: European Parliament resumes UK TCA ratification process
The European Parliament’s political group leaders have met today to decide what to do next about the ratification of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. These are the next steps: the foreign affairs committee and the international trade committee will vote on the deal on Thursday (15 April 2021). The …
Week in Brussels : MEP UK TCA walkout threat, Vaccine uproar, CETA in Ireland & France
Drift. That’s the best way to describe the week in European Union trade policy. European Parliament threatens EU UK TCA walkout A perpetual crisis over border checks in Northern Ireland is now a possibility, with this week’s UK decision to unilaterally extend a grace period for intra-UK border checks until …
EU UK trade agreement provisional application extended
The United Kingdom has acquiesced to the European Union’s request to extend provisional application of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement until 30 April 2021. London continues to refuse to formally establish the EU-UK Partnership Council foreseen in the agreement as long as the deal is not ratified by the …
Week in Brussels: Ground preparations
This has been a very odd week, strangely busy with little actually happening in terms of decisions. The EU is preparing the ground for many further developments. Some more on this below.
EP spells out terms for EU-UK TCA approval, accelerates scrutiny process
The European Parliament is preparing to ratify the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement before the end of the month. The foreign affairs and international trade committees, who run the scrutiny process are accelerating the pace and have already secured input from all relevant committees. This input indicates the European Parliament …
UPDATED – EU requires prior authorisation for APA vaccine exports – targeting mainly Britain
This article was updated on 30 January. The European Commission released a regulation submitting exports of vaccines covered by the European Union’s advanced purchase programme to an export license. The move comes days after Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced a ‘transparency’ mechanism for such exports as a row …