EU joint defence to focus on south
France and Germany propose leap forward on EU defence, but ideas are far from being an "EU army", and target African crises instead of Russia.
France and Germany propose leap forward on EU defence, but ideas are far from being an "EU army", and target African crises instead of Russia.
Croatia's centre-right HDZ party won Sunday's snap elections by 61 seats against a socialist opposition bloc on 54. The previous government, where HDZ was the main party, fell in a conflict of interest affair. It did not deliver on reforms and stoked anti-Serb nationalism. Andrej Plenkovic, the new HDZ leader, has promised a "Europe oriented government". The HDZ is expected to join up with Most, a centrist party, in parliament.
Nikolai Statkevich, a former presidential candidate and political prisoner, has said Sunday's parliamentary elections in Belarus were a "farce" and called for protests, The Guardian reports. Andrei Sannikov, also a senior opposition figure, said Belarus is trying to put on a "show" for the West to get financial aid. They spoke after two, but minor, opposition MPs were let into parliament for the first time under president Aleksander Lukashenko.
Former British PM David Cameron has resigned his parliament seat, saying that, as former leader, he did not want to be a “big distraction” for new PM Theresa May. He said he would “start building a life outside Westminster” but hoped to “contribute in terms of public service”. He said May had had “a “great start”. Cameron resigned as PM after losing the Brexit referendum in June.
The Swiss stock exchange, SIX, is in talks with German financial authority Bafin on how to attain regulatory “equivalence” in the EU in order to keep trading after the UK leaves. SIX had in the past used the City of London as its gateway to the EU. “Post-Brexit, you’ll need equivalence with the UK and the EU [separately] ... London isn’t enough any more", SIX head Urs Ruegsegger, told FT.
EU Council head Tusk plans to "address possible unintended consequences of free movement of persons while fully upholding the principle", at Friday's Bratislava summit on EU reform, according to speaking notes seen by the Politico website. The spotlight on negative aspects of EU migration comes after the UK left the Union partly over immigration. The UK wants to keep single market access after Brexit, but also to impose migration curbs.
Turkish nationals are the top suspects in smuggling migrants to Europe. Europol, the EU police agency, cited a 295.3 percent increase in the first eight months of this year when compared to 2015. Some 423 Turkish nationals were suspected of the crime compared to 107 last year. Syrians, Bulgarians and Romanians followed as other top smuggler nationalities.
EU leaders will meet in Malta early next year "to increase momentum for new idea of Europe," Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat announced on Monday after meeting European Council president Donald Tusk. Malta will hold the rotating EU presidency from January to July. The 27 EU leaders are meeting without their British colleague in Bratislava on Friday to start the thinking about the post-Brexit EU.
The European Commission has declined to confirm that vice-president Kristalina Georgieva is a candidate to be the next United Nations head. Senior official Martin Selmayr had tweeted that the Bulgarian commissioner "would make strong UNSG", meaning UN secretary general. But a commission spokesman later said the tweet was not an official endorsement or confirmation, adding: "I don't think one conclusion follows from the other."
The European Commission has confirmed it will look at the contract signed by former chief Jose Manuel Barroso for a job with Goldman Sachs bank and decide whether he broke EU rules. A spokesman said his job had "created a considerable degree of concern" but denied that the commission had launched the probe because of public pressure only.
The rerun of the Austrian presidential election, scheduled on 2 October, has to be postponed, interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced Monday. The reason for the delay is a problem with the glue used for postal vote envelopes. The government will ask parliament to modify the electoral law so that the vote can be organised on 27 November or 4 December.
French PM Manuel Valls has said France has 15,000 suspects on a security watchlist and foils plots on a daily basis but cannot rule out more attacks. "There will be new attacks, there will be innocent victims," he said on TV Sunday. He attacked proposals for preemptive detention of suspects, floated by right wing politician Nikolas Sarkozy, as a plan that would "wring the neck of the rule of law".
Croatia's centre-right HDZ party lead in Croatia's general election with 61 seats, followed by the social democrat SDP party with 54 seats, according to the first preliminary results of Sunday's vote published by the State Election Commission. The centre-right MOST has come third with 13 seats and will again play a major role in forming the future coalition government, as it did after the last election in November.
The EU should double its investment plan, currently at €315bn over a period of three years, the EU's Mediterranean member states agreed on Friday at a summit in Athens. They urged “more ambitious initiatives” for jobs for young people. Initiated by Greek PM Tsipras, the group aims to form a counterweight to German-lead austerity policies in Europe. The leaders said they would meet next in Portugal.
Jean-Claude Juncker told EU ombudsman that his predecessor will be treated as just another lobbyist and will be subject to scrutiny by a special ethics committee.
Germany and France have drawn up plans for closer EU defence cooperation, including a new military HQ and swifter deployment of overseas missions.
Julian King is set to become the EU commissioner for the security union, but will first have to face MEPs in the civil liberties committee.
Hundreds of thousands marched on Sunday for Catalonia's national day. The local government, while struggling to pass its budget, is trying to raise its profile abroad.
Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd has said she is looking at a work permit system to control migration from the EU. "Work permits certainly have value," she told the BBC on Sunday. Rudd said reports that Britons may have to pay for permission to visit the EU after Brexit were "a reminder that this is a two-way negotiation".
Austria's interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka is expected to announce a new date for the re-run of presidential elections, after a technical problem with the glue on postal vote forms made the previously announced 2 October date impossible. The constitutional court ruled the presidential election in May invalid after irregularities were found in the counting process.
Scotland’s minister in charge of Brexit negotiations has called for talks with the UK government to begin immediately, reports The Scotsman. Michael Russell, who was appointed last month to press Scotland’s case with UK ministers, said remaining in the single market was “the most sensible and beneficial position”, adding: “That needs us to be at the table. It needs the discussions to start now.”