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Project Fear

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The U.K. is stepping up its  plans for a no-deal Brexit . As the government tried to present a united front during the Tory party conference, Brexit Secretary David Davis’s message to the faithful was that the government has a “determined exercise” under way so that it’s ready for the worst if talks fail. “Not because it’s what we seek, but because it needs to be done.” In private too, senior officials are growing concerned that the EU’s refusal to move talks on to trade—with just 18 months to go until Britain leaves—will make a deal impossible before the deadline, Bloomberg’s Tim Ross reports. Leaving the EU without a deal would be catastrophic for business, throwing industries from financial markets to air travel and pharmaceuticals into legal limbo. After decades under European rules, trading terms would revert overnight to World Trade Organization tariffs, and trucks could pile up at ports awaiting customs checks. Playing to the domestic audience, U.K. mini...

Boris Johnson embarca a los ‘tories’ en su visión optimista del Brexit

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El díscolo ministro de Exteriores firma la paz con Theresa May e inyecta moral al Partido Conservador. El Partido Conservador llegó a Manchester hundido. Precedido de protestas callejeras, golpeado en las elecciones de junio, incapaz de desbloquear las negociaciones en Bruselas, envuelto en una guerra del Brexit, con una primera ministra desautorizada y una oposición crecida. Hasta que llegó Boris Johnson. El ministro de Exteriores, en su discurso ante el congreso tory, ha embarcado este miércoles al partido en su visión optimista del futuro del país. Ha ofrecido todo su apoyo a una primera ministra a la que lleva semanas desafiando. Y se ha ganado la autoridad para seguir marcando, desde la retaguardia, la agenda del Brexit. “Es hora de dejar de tratar el resultado del referéndum como si fuera la plaga de las úlceras o una peste bovina o una aberración inexplicable a cargo de 17,4 millones de personas [las que votaron por el Brexit]. Es la hora de ser audaces y aprovech...

BORIS watch

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With the Conservative Party conference under way in Manchester, two questions are front and center: can Prime Minister Theresa May cling on to the leadership, and will she say anything to worry Brussels while playing to her base? May goes into conference facing calls to fire Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for undermining her on Brexit—most recently with a weekend interview in The Sun. Asked on Sunday if Johnson was unsackable, May just laughed and dodged the question . Johnson, who is pushing for a quicker, no-compromises split from Europe in favor of closer ties to new allies, in line with the pledges he made on the campaign trail, expects May to be gone in a year, The Sunday Times reported . According to May’s allies, Johnson is just “posturing,” the Telegraph reports today. And it’s not just Boris. Brexit Secretary David Davis has also undermined May, striking a more belligerent tone over the divorce since May’s big Florence speech than the premier did herself. ...

A concession?

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For all the fighting talk at the start of the fourth round of Brexit negotiations, the EU is now considering a concession . Moving talks on to trade next month looks all but out of reach, but Bloomberg’s Ian Wishart and Viktoria Dendrinou report that EU governments may allow negotiations about the transition period to be brought forward. It’s a minor concession and the two sides remain far apart on some key issues, but movement on an issue that’s so crucial for U.K. businesses would ease negotiations over the bill. It would also show that Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech in Florence last week hit at least some of the right notes in Europe. The concession could see chief negotiator Michel Barnier handed an amended mandate. When EU leaders meet at a summit in October they may allow Barnier to address the transition alongside the divorce, according to people familiar with the situation. Initially any transition was meant to be debated only after the divorce had been settle...

The bill is getting bigger

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The Brexit bill might just have got even bigger. As negotiators haggle line by line over what each side thinks Britain should pay when it leaves, the latest budget data include some unwelcome numbers. The European Union’s liabilities grew almost 4 percent in 2016, with the cost of pensions for EU officials and lawmakers rising more than 5 percent, according to budget documents obtained by Bloomberg’s Ian Wishart and Marine Strauss. Pension costs are already one of the trickiest bits of the bill—Brexit Secretary David Davis called them “debatable” at the weekend—and the latest data will sharpen that debate. Swelling EU costs will also provide fodder for British euroskeptics who would rather Britain walked away without paying anything, and who object to Prime Minister Theresa May’s offer to keep paying into the EU budget for two years after Brexit.  Negotiators need to take into account costs that will continue to rise until then, not just current liabilities. That’s wh...

Back to square one?

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Minutes into the fourth round of Brexit talks, which started in Brussels on Monday, Britain’s Brexit Secretary David Davis shattered the illusion that the U.K. was ready to play by the EU’s rules on the divorce bill. Whatever Prime Minister Theresa May said in Florence last week about meeting the U.K.’s financial commitments, Davis made it clear Britain will only pay up if it gets the final deal it wants.  “It’s obvious that reaching a conclusion on this issue can only be done in the context of, and in accordance with, a new deep and special partnership with the EU,” Davis said, standing alongside EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, who has made it clear the bill needs to be sorted first. Watch: Barnier Demands Brexit Clarity from U.K. Even before Davis arrived in Brussels, European affairs ministers briefed by Barnier were skeptical that EU leaders will be able to sign off on talks moving on to the trade deal Britain wants in October, according to people in the m...

Reino Unido se compromete a no crear un 'DNI' especial para europeos tras el Brexit

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El Gobierno de Reino Unido parece estar dando pasos hacia un mayor reconocimiento de los derechos de los europeos una vez que se consume el Brexit   en la primavera de 2019. En una reunión mantenida hoy con los representantes del colectivo the3million , el Ministerio del Interior se ha comprometido a no crear un DNI especial, no pedir ingresos mínimos y tampoco exigir el seguro médico privado para poder permanecer en el país. Desde el colectivo de defensa de los derechos de los ciudadanos europeos ya se ha celebrado este paso como una pequeña victoria -llevan reclamando estos compromisos desde el referéndum de junio de 2016- y empiezan a ver con optimismo la resolución de unas negociaciones que llevan enquistadas prácticamente desde su inicio. "Teniendo en cuenta el clima de discriminación que destapamos recientemente, se trata de un paso muy bienvenido a la hora de enfrentar la incertidumbre y la confusión que se ha creado alrededor del nuevo estatus que tendrán los ...