Foreign News
Brexit: EU and UK at odds over Northern Ireland renegotiation
An uneasy Christmas truce has been called over the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, even as the EU said it would not negotiate over a key British demand in the rancorous talks.
Maroš Šefčovič, the EU Brexit commissioner, said there was “momentum” behind discussions after a major British U-turn, but refused to offer quid pro quo concessions.
Downing Street has conceded in recent weeks that it will prioritise removing barriers to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland over other constitutional issues that have bedevilled the talks. Talks will be suspended until after Christmas.
But in a blow to the British government, the commissioner on Friday refused even to engage with its demand for any renegotiation over the role of the European court of justice (ECJ) in the enforcement of EU law in Northern Ireland, despite a UK concession that the court could retain a role in the protocol.
“It was not disputed at all until the summer of this year and therefore the topic we are not ready to include in our discussions,” said Šefčovič, the EU commissioner in charge of UK relations.
Under a protocol of the withdrawal agreement, Northern Ireland in effect remains within the EU’s single market and the bloc’s customs border is drawn down the Irish sea. The EU court is the final arbiter of disputes.
The British government, however, wants an independent arbitration system rather than giving the ECJ the last say, although in recent days it has accepted the court in Luxembourg will resolve questions about EU law if issues come to arbitration.
A potential solution exists in the post-Brexit trade agreement and the EU’s deal with Switzerland. But the European Commission said on Friday that this model was not feasible – yet.
A senior EU official said the protocol was “completely different” to the EU trade agreement with Switzerland, because the Northern Ireland agreement was based on “the direct application of reams of EU legislation”, rather than “elements of EU law, which are referred to or paraphrased” as in the deal with Berne. “It was judged that this arbitral solution was not sufficient, and that you needed the full powers of the court of justice,” the official said.
Another barrier is that the commission refuses to reopen an agreement that was signed by Boris Johnson little more than two years ago.
There is agreement to extend a standstill arrangement beyond 1 January to avoid the full implementation of customs on meat and agricultural imports.
But Brussels remains mistrustful of the British government. “The fundamental stumbling block is that we need the UK to move back into a logic of the implementation of an agreement that it negotiated, signed and ratified,” said a senior official.
The two sides are also at odds over the process of the talks. While British officials have spoken of “a staged approach”, where issues are agreed one by one, the EU would like a single agreement.
Customs and health checks remain a major stumbling block in the talks. While the EU considers it has made a generous offer to cut red tape, the UK argues that its claims to remove 50% of customs checks and 80% of health checks do not stand up.
The EU announced on Friday it would rewrite its rules on medicines to ensure life-saving treatments and everyday drugs remained available in Northern Ireland, after threats to supply emerged. Without a change to the rules or grace period, medicine manufacturers based in Great Britain had warned they could cease supplying products to Northern Ireland, because of the extra costs imposed by red tape.
Hundreds of medicines used by the NHS in Northern Ireland were at risk. The commission has now proposed that new medicines for Northern Ireland can be authorised by the UK, even if they have yet to be approved by the EU regulator.
Under the proposals, quality control checks, so called “batch testing”, would not need to be repeated in Northern Ireland, if they had already been carried out in Great Britain or the EU. The proposals have to be agreed by EU lawmakers and ministers before coming into force.
Meanwhile, the French EU minister Clément Beaune said Paris would “in the coming days” begin proceedings against the UK over fishing licences it said Britain still owed a small number of French boats to allow them to operate in British waters.
“The next step will be to ask the commission in the coming days to convene the partnership council, as provided for under the Brexit trade deal to settle a problem,” Beaune said, adding that the procedure would target “the most urgent” cases.
Foreign News
Kemi Badenoch Pledges To Ban Doctors’ Strikes If Conservative Party Takes Power In The UK
Leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has vowed that doctors’ strikes will be banned under a Conservative government.
The Tory party leader today announced she would amend the law to bar the protests as she insisted the British Medical Association (BMA) is ‘out of control’.
It comes following 11 strikes in the past 18 months, which Ms Badenoch said had resulted in patients dying.
Her comments were made on GB News amid the ongoing five-day series of strikes by resident doctors in support of a pay claim.
Urging Sir Keir Starmer to take similar action, Ms Badenoch said: ‘The BMA has become militant, these strikes are going too far, and it is time for action.
‘Doctors do incredibly important work. Medicine is a vocation – not just a job. That is why in government we offered a fair deal that supported doctors, but protected taxpayers too.
‘These strikes will have a significant economic effect, but they will also mean cancelled operations, worry for families of the sick, and suffering for those who are unwell. We know that previous strike action by doctors even led to some patients losing their lives.
‘That is why Conservatives are stepping in, and setting out common sense proposals to protect patients, and the public finances. And we are making an offer in the national interest – we will work with the Government to face down the BMA to help protect patients and the NHS.’
Police, the military, and prison officers are banned from taking strike action under the 1992 Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act in the UK. The Conservatives would amend this to include doctors.
Foreign News
Saudi Arabia’s ‘Sleeping Prince’ Dies After 20 Years in Coma Following London Car Crash
A Saudi prince who spent more than two decades in a coma after a car crash in London has died at the age of 36.
Prince Al-Waleed bin Khalid Al-Saud suffered severe brain injuries and internal bleeding in the horrific accident when he was just 15 years old in 2005.
He was dubbed the ‘Sleeping Prince’ and was kept on a ventilator in hospital but never regained full consciousness.
Prince Al-Waleed was the eldest son of Prince Khaled bin Talal Al Saud, who announced his death in a heartbreaking post on X today.
He said: ‘O reassured soul, Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him], And enter among My [righteous] servants, And enter My Paradise.
‘With hearts believing in Allah will and decree, and with deep sorrow and sadness, we mourn our beloved son: Prince Al-Waleed bin Khaled bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, may Allah have mercy on him, who passed away today.’
Prince Al-Waleed was studying at a military college in London when he was involved in the devastating car crash.
After the accident, he was hospitalised at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh where he remained in a coma.
Prince Al-Waleed’s father, who is the brother of business tycoon Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, never gave up hope his son would one day make a full recovery.
He remained involved in the prince’s care and opposed withdrawing life support.
Clips shared on social media in 2020 showed Prince Al-Waleed lifting his fingers as a woman greets him.
‘Hi, Didi hello, hello let me see, hi,’ she says as the prince wiggles his fingers in response.
She then asked if the prince could do ‘one more, one more, higher, higher’ and he could be seen lifting his whole hand off the bed momentarily.
However, despite the signs he could be recovering Prince Al-Waleed remained in a critical condition.
Funeral prayers for the prince will be held tomorrow at Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an interview released on Monday that Israel, which last month fought a 12-day war with Iran, had attempted to assassinate him.
“They did try, yes. They acted accordingly, but they failed,” Pezeshkian told US media figure Tucker Carlson in response to a question on whether he believed Israel had tried to kill him.
“It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting… they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting,” he said according to a translation of his remarks from Persian, in apparent reference to an alleged assassination attempt during the recent war.
On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists.
The Israeli attacks took place days before Tehran and Washington were set to meet for a new round of nuclear talks which began on April 12.
More than 900 people were killed in Iran during the conflict, according to the judiciary.
The Israeli attacks drew waves of retaliatory drone and missile fire, killing 28 people in Israel, according to authorities.
The 12-day war between Iran and Israel saw it, along with the United States, launching strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
During the interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian said his country has “no problem” restarting nuclear talks, provided that trust can be reestablished between the two countries.
“We see no problem in re-entering the negotiations,” the Iranian president said.
“There is a condition … for restarting the talks. How are we going to trust the United States again? We re-entered the negotiations, then how can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us.”
VIDEO:
AFP
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