European Union

In Strasbourg, President Donald Tusk addressed the plenary session of the European Parliament on the discussions held during the European Council meetings.

Information about media programme and accreditation requirements for the EU-Japan Summit in July

Oral Question on the EU’s input to a UN Binding Instrument on TNCs and other business enterprises with transnational characteristics with respect to Human Rights
Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

The resignations of Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, and Brexit Secretary, David Davis, along with other government ministers, show that there is no real consensus on what Brexit means.

There is a jagged oozing fissure right through the Conservative government and party, just as there is across the country, because Brexit is as enigmatic as ever.

And if the politicians, and the country, can’t agree on what Brexit means today, then how could voters have known what it meant in the referendum of over two years ago?

So, here’s the simple truth: Nobody gave ‘informed consent’ for Brexit. They could not have done, because in the 2016 referendum, nobody was sufficiently informed about Brexit.

On the contrary, the country was entirely misinformed.

There was no blueprint, plan, proposal or manifesto for Brexit. Just a lot of fairy-tale claims and promises that have all turned out to be false.

If the details of Brexit had been agreed, we’d have voted on those details on 23 June 2016. But we didn’t have any details.

Over two years later, Theresa May can pretend there is harmony in her Cabinet on the type of Brexit Britain will get, but even as she speaks, it’s all falling apart.

How can anyone claim that the country knew what it was voting for in June 2016 when it’s taken until July 2018 for the government to work out a plan for Brexit?

And then for that plan to result in Cabinet resignations, because that’s not the Brexit they had in mind?

And then for that Brexit plan to be undeliverable – because the plan relies on the EU allowing Britain to break its own rules, which they won’t do. Why should they?

Brexit is entirely undeliverable. It was never anything more than an illusion.

It appealed to people who were fed-up with a host of issues, that had nothing to do with the EU, but it seemed that Brexit was the magic word that could fix everything.

But Brexit won’t fix anything. It will break us apart. It is already.

The government keeps going with their daft Brexit plans because they say that’s the will of the people. They think that’s what Britain wants.

But that’s an illusion too. Britain – and Britons – don’t want this. How could this mess be the will of anyone?

We are witnessing our country being dismantled, destroyed, and our international reputation disintegrated.

Nobody can want this.

Nobody would have voted for this if they had known the truth two years ago.

More and more of us can see that Brexit has no clothes. It stands naked, forlorn and shivering before us, dying and gasping for breath, with nothing to offer the nation but years and decades of misery.

If our political masters are truly interested in ‘the will of the people’ they should have no hesitation in asking us what is our will today.

They dare not because they know our answer would be: bury Brexit now.

We want our country back pre-23 June 2016. It wasn’t so bad after all.

And we want our continent back. Europe is where we belong. At the centre, in the heart of it, and not languishing on the periphery.

________________________________________________________

• Follow my journalism page on Facebook: Jon Danzig writes
• Follow my Stop Brexit campaign on Facebook: Reasons2Remain

________________________________________________________

• Join and share the discussion about this article on Facebook:

The post It’s time to bury Brexit appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

DRAFT REPORT on The Council's annual report in accordance with Operative Provision 8 of the European Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Sabine Lösing

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/59A2FD2D-9B7D-42AD-89F8-58B7061EF240small_thumb_169_1530784139_1530784139_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The EU-Ukraine Summit takes place on 9 July 2018 in Brussels. The implementation of the association agreement and its free trade area, the Minsk agreement, the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, and regional issues are at the top of the agenda. The EU is represented by Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, and by Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the European Commission. Ukraine is represented by President Petro POROSHENKO. The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica MOGHERINI, Vice-Presidents Maroš ŠEFČOVIČ and Valdis DOMBROVSKIS and Commissioner Cecilia MALMSTRÖM also participate at the Summit.

Download this video here.

The EU Parliament has rejected controversial plans for a reform of Internet copyright laws that would introduce compulsory upload filters. In a plenary session the parliament voted by a thin majority against presenting the bill to the member states. Commentators discuss the pros and cons of the reform and see it as a ray of hope for European policy that the topic has drawn so much attention.

Two more British citizens have been found unconscious after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok. According to British police they had come into contact with a "contaminated object". Journalists speculate on whether the object was a left-over from the Skripal case or whether the Russian - or British - secret service had a hand in the poisoning.

German Interior Minister Seehofer (CSU) has paid a visit to Austrian Chancellor Kurz in a bid to push through his plans for stopping asylum seekers on the German border. Kurz, however, has rejected the idea that refugees to whom the Dublin Regulation applies should be sent back to Austria. The politics of national egotisms have reached their limit, media in both countries comment gleefully.

The leaders of Romania's two ruling parties Liviu Dragnea (PSD) and Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu (Alde) have announced that they will decide by Monday whether to launch impeachment proceedings against President Klaus Iohannis. The latter is blocking a series of highly controversial changes to the penal code which Dragnea is pushing for and which would hamper the fight against corruption. Commentators assess the power struggle taking place at different levels.