BRUSSELS: European officials warned Monday that Britain’s latest Brexit proposal won’t serve as a basis for a breakthrough before next week’s Brussels summit.
With no draft deal on the table before the October 17 meeting, Britain and Europe will face either a chaotic break-up or yet another Brexit delay.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted he will not ask to postpone Britain’s planned October 31 departure from the European Union.
However, he may be forced to do so by a British law passed to prevent a potentially economically calamitous no-deal divorce, with European negotiators warning time is running out.
Johnson’s envoy, senior diplomat David Frost, was in Brussels on Monday for more “technical talks,” and Brexit minister Stephen Barclay traveled to the Hague to meet Dutch officials.
But both heard that the latest British plans to impose alternative customs arrangements on Northern Ireland, to be reviewed every four years by the provincial assembly, is unlikely to convince.
“I think we all agree we need a workable solution now and not something based on untried and revokable arrangements that would be left to negotiation during the transition period,” EU spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said.
“As we have also recalled, the UK proposals presented last week do not meet at present the objectives of the protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland,” she said, referring to negotiating terms agreed in 2017.
“This is also the shared view of European Parliament, but also all member states,” she added.
Meanwhile, after a “frank and honest” discussion with Barclay, Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said “more realism and clarity” would be needed if this week’s talks are to go much further.
Additionally, in an interview with Le Monde, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier warned that if London “does not come back with new proposals on the two serious problems we have indicated to them, I cannot see how we can move forward.”
Despite the divisions, Frost is still meeting with EU officials for technical talks, but doubts remain that a workable Brexit deal text will be available by Friday.
If it is not, European officials warn, there will be no time to get member states to sign off on it before October 17 and 18, the last scheduled European summit before Brexit day.
Britain insists its offer represents significant concessions and now the EU must show similar flexibility, but Brussels is adamant it will not agree to any plan that undermines its single market or leaves Ireland exposed.
In London, a Number 10 spokesman said: “We are ready to talk with the EU at a pace to secure a deal so that we can move on and build a new partnership between the UK and the EU.
“But if this is to be possible the EU must match the compromises that the UK has made,” he warned.
On Sunday, Barclay suggested London could be willing to soften its position on Northern Ireland, describing last week’s suggestion as “a broad landing zone” rather than a final take-it-or-leave-it offer.
But, during telephone talks with Johnson on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear that the EU would decide by the end of this week whether a deal is possible.
The British proposals submitted to Brussels last week center on how to manage the post-Brexit border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Johnson wants Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly — which has been suspended for almost three years — to vote every four years on whether to maintain EU rather than British regulations there.
He has also proposed the province leaves the EU’s customs union along with the rest of the UK, with checks on trade to rely on untried technology and to be carried out away from the sensitive border.
Brussels has said these plans are not a basis for an agreement.
Separately, British anti-Brexit campaigners failed to secure a court ruling forcing Johnson to seek an extension in the event of a no deal — but only because the Edinburgh Court of Session decided that the government had already made “unequivocal assurances” it would abide by the law.
EU says Britain needs new plan as Brexit clock runs out
EU says Britain needs new plan as Brexit clock runs out
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted he will not ask to postpone Britain’s planned October 31 departure from UN
- Brussels has said these plans are not a basis for an agreement
Sri Lanka’s left-leaning president swears in new Cabinet after election victory
- Harini Amarasuriya, first woman to head Sri Lankan government, reappointed as PM
- National People’s Power alliance won two-thirds majority in the 225-member parliament
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new left-leaning president swore in on Monday a 22-member Cabinet after his party coalition secured a landslide victory in a snap parliamentary vote last week.
The alliance of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the National People’s Power, secured 159 seats in the 225-member assembly, giving the new leader a mandate to fulfill his campaign promises of sweeping reforms, including to fight poverty and corruption.
The crisis-hit island nation is still struggling to emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, after declaring bankruptcy and defaulting on its external debt in 2022.
Dissanayake reappointed Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister and lawmaker Vijitha Herath to helm the foreign affairs, foreign employment and tourism ministries, while the president himself retained the posts of defense and finance minister.
“This power we gained is accountable. To whom? On one hand, it is accountable to the public, and on the other hand, to the movement,” Dissanayake told the new Cabinet after the swearing-in ceremony, referring to his alliance’s aim to create a people-centered national movement.
“We had a lot of good aims. We worked to gain power for that. We struggled a lot … The huge the victory we achieved, the heavier our responsibility,” he said. “Let’s work together to achieve the results our people deserve.”
When Dissanayake won the presidential vote in September, the NPP coalition only had three seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve it and call for a snap election that took place on Thursday, a year ahead of schedule.
His new, fully-formed Cabinet will govern Sri Lanka after austerity measures imposed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe — part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund — led to price hikes in food and fuel and caused hardship to millions of Sri Lankans.
During his campaign, Dissanayake said he planned to renegotiate the targets set in the IMF deal to alleviate the burden placed on ordinary people. A team from the fund is in Colombo this week to review the reform program.
More than half of former lawmakers chose not to run for re-election. No contenders were seen from the powerful Rajapaksa family, including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya, also a former president, who was ousted in 2022 and largely blamed for the crisis.
Thursday’s election saw the United People’s Power of Sajith Premadasa retain its role from the previous parliament as the largest opposition party, winning 40 seats.
Sri Lanka People’s Front, the party loyal to the Rajapaksa family, secured only three seats in the new parliament.
UN climate chief to nations at COP29: ‘cut the theatrics’
- As the UN climate talks limp into a second week in Azerbaijan, the world is no closer to a finance deal for poorer countries that will determine the success or failure of COP29
As the UN climate talks limp into a second week in Azerbaijan, the world is no closer to a finance deal for poorer countries that will determine the success or failure of COP29.
UN climate boss Simon Stiell said that “bluffing, brinkmanship and premeditated playbooks burn up precious time and run down the goodwill needed.”
“Let’s cut the theatrics and get down to business,” he told delegates assembled in a cavernous football stadium in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.
COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev, a former oil executive turned ecology minister, urged countries to “refocus and pick up the pace.”
Government ministers at the negotiating table have until Friday to break the impasse over how to raise $1 trillion a year for developing countries to cope with global warming.
With the clock ticking, pressure is mounting on G20 leaders to throw their weight behind the stalled process in Baku when they meet in Brazil for their annual summit on Monday and Tuesday.
“A successful outcome at COP29 is still within reach, but it will require leadership and compromise, namely from the G20 countries,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, where he is attending the G20 summit of the world’s biggest economies.
“The spotlight is naturally on the G20. They account for 80 percent of global emissions,” Guterres said, calling on the group to “lead by example.”
In a sign that a solution could emerge from Rio, the head of the Brazilian delegation to COP29, Andre Aranha Correa do Lago, left Baku to prepare for the G20.
Besides the finance impasse, a fight is also brewing at COP29 over whether countries should recommit to last year’s landmark pledge to move the world away from fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of obstructing efforts to address this and other measures to reduce record-high emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases.
The main task at COP29 is negotiating a new deal to provide developing countries enough money to cut emissions and build resilience against worsening climate shocks.
Rei Josiah Echano, disaster chief in the typhoon-hit Philippines province of Northern Samar, called for talks to be “radically fast-tracked” to help those in dire need.
Developing countries excluding China will need $1 trillion a year in outside assistance by the end of the decade, according to independent economists commissioned by the United Nations.
Stiell said it was “easy to become slightly anaesthetised” by the numbers.
“But let’s never allow ourselves to forget: these figures are the difference between safety and life-wrecking disasters for billions of people,” he said.
“It certainly keeps me up at night.”
Climate-vulnerable nations want developed nations to commit at COP29 to substantially raising their existing pledge of $100 billion a year.
But donors say they cannot raise the money alone and the private sector must also be involved.
The United States and European Union also want wealthy emerging economies not obligated to pay climate finance — most notably China — to share the burden.
The EU is the biggest contributor to international climate finance but faces political and budget pressure, and could be left exposed should the United States refuse to pay up under Donald Trump.
The conference opened in the shadow of Trump’s re-election in the United States, and efforts to shore up support for the global climate fight took another knock when Argentina’s delegation withdrew from the summit.
A meeting between Chinese and European officials was seen as a glimmer of hope in an otherwise gloomy first week.
Azerbaijan lacks diplomatic experience at a time when COP observers say crucial leadership is needed to steer what some see as the most complex climate negotiations in years.
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, was accused of making matters harder by defending fossil fuels and attacking France over its colonial record, sparking a diplomatic incident.
Critics have questioned the suitability of Azerbaijan to host the premier climate talks.
The Council of Europe, the EU’s top human rights body, called on Monday for the release of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in a letter to Aliyev.
Militants kill five Nigerian troops in raid on base
- Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province storm military base
- Militant groups have been waging a 15-year-old insurrection for an Islamic Caliphate
KANO, Nigeria: Attackers from a Daesh-affiliated militant group killed five Nigerian soldiers and wounded 10 more in a raid on a military base near the Niger border, two officers said Monday.
Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) stormed the base in Kareto village, Borno state in a dawn attack Saturday and triggered a gunbattle, the military officers said.
Northern Nigeria has been plagued by a bloody Islamist insurgency since 2009, and security cooperation on the border has broken down since the July 2023 military coup in Niger.
“We lost five soldiers in the battle with 10 other injured,” one senior military officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“Four of our men are still missing and search and rescue is under way to locate them,” he added.
The gunmen captured four trucks fitted with anti-aircraft guns and burnt five other vehicles, including a mine-resistant military truck, according to a second officer who gave the same toll.
In a statement issued Sunday, ISWAP claimed to have “killed and wounded” more than 20 troops in a suicide car bomb attack during the raid, according to SITE Intelligence, which monitors online militant activity.
The group claimed to have torched the base and burnt 14 vehicles.
Kareto, 153 kilometers (95 miles) north of the Borno state capital Maiduguri, houses the Nigerian army’s 149 Battalion, which is deployed to fight ISWAP and its rival fellow militant group Boko Haram.
The base has been repeatedly targeted by both groups.
Militant groups have been waging a 15-year-old insurrection for an Islamic Caliphate that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million more.
Ukraine brings back long rolling power cuts after major Russian strike
- Russia unleashed its largest missile attack on Ukraine in almost three months
- Temporary power cuts across the country were announced on Sunday
KYIV: Ukrainians in the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Monday morning had been without power for 24 hours and further cuts were planned across the country after a massive Russian missile strike over the weekend damaged energy infrastructure.
Russia unleashed its largest missile attack on Ukraine in almost three months on Sunday, killing seven people and further hobbling an already damaged energy system.
“The situation is most difficult in Odesa and Odesa district. Unfortunately, it is not yet technically possible to supply power to the critical infrastructure in the Kyivskyi and Primorskyi districts of the city,” power distributor DTEK wrote on the Telegram messenger.
As of Monday morning some 400,000 homes had power restored while 321,000 consumers remained without service, DTEK said.
Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said the water supply and heating was being gradually restored across the city with 445 shelters offering necessary services to residents.
Russia has attacked the Odesa region for months, hitting port and energy infrastructure.
Attacks in the autumn of 2022 left the region without electricity for several days and also triggered curbs on energy use in the winter of 2023.
Temporary power cuts across the country were announced on Sunday between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. by national grid operator Ukrenergo which said workers were repairing the damage as quickly as possible.
Engineers restored power to almost 150,000 consumers following yesterday’s attack, the energy ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Authorities said most regions would face blackouts on Monday of up to eight hours, including the capital Kyiv.
Power cuts of six hours were expected in the central Ukrainian region of Cherkasy and cuts of four to six hours in Sumy in northern Ukraine.
No cuts were planned in five western regions.
EU needs to keep up dialogue with Israel, Dutch foreign minister says on Borrell proposal
- Disagreeing with the EU’s top diplomat who proposed to pause the dialogue with the country
PARIS: The European Union needs to continue its diplomatic dialogue with Israel amid tensions in the Middle East, Dutch foreign Caspar Veldkamp said on Monday, disagreeing with the EU’s top diplomat who proposed to pause the dialogue with the country.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week proposed that the bloc suspend its political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.
