nEUwsletter 01/03/2020
- European Horizons Bangor
- Mar 1, 2020
- 5 min read
Brexit: London sets out its demand for future relationship with the EU
By Alexandre Capel
The United Kingdom published on Thursday 27 February its mandate for negotiations on its future relationship with the European Union. Opting for a firm stance rejecting any regulatory alignment, the country is once again threatening an outcome without an agreement at the end of the transition period on 31 December.
"Negotiations on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union are starting off on the wrong foot," France 24 announced. This week, the EU Council validated the European negotiating mandate on Tuesday, before the British one was presented on Thursday. These documents, which will make it possible to launch the negotiations, define the expectations and red lines of each of the parties. The report is clear: there is a "deep gulf" between London and Brussels.
The EU intends to establish an agreement "covering everything from fisheries, aviation, energy to immigration", says the BBC. And as a condition of British access to the common market under a free trade agreement, it wants to force the UK to "align itself with European standards" in the areas of state aid, the environment, labour law and taxation, explains the New York Times. British standards that are too far removed from European standards "could put European companies at a disadvantage," the EU believes. The 27 countries want to "avoid unfair competition on their doorstep," explains France 24.
A regulatory alignment unthinkable for London: "the aim of Brexit was precisely to ensure the economic and political independence of the United Kingdom," the news channel points out. The British mandate specifies that "the government will not negotiate any arrangement where the UK does not have control over its own laws and political life".
Controversial award for Roman Polanski
By Mathilde Flamant
Cinema director Roman Polanski won the best director award for An Officer and a Spy (J’accuse) at the 45th Cesar ceremony, France's national cinema awards that took place on 28 February 2020.
The awarded movie is about the wrongful treason conviction in the 1890s of French Captain Alfred Dreyfus on an anti-Semitic persecution ground.
There was a very significant backlash to this prize as the 86-year-old director has been a fugitive from the United States since 1977, after admitting unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. He has since faced other accusations of sexual assault, has evaded various extradition attempts by the USA and is still wanted there. Last year, a woman claimed that Polanski raped her in 1975 when she was 18. The director denied it, and the allegations are too old to be investigated, but the accusation put the director under fresh scrutiny in France.
The director skipped the ceremony, arguing that he feared for his safety asa few hundreds protesters were assembled outside the Salle Pleyel concert hall, where the ceremony took place, earlier that evening to denounce the 12 nominations the film received despite the multiple sex assaults accusations. At the announcement of Polanski’s award, boos emerged from the film teams and cinema professionals in the public.
The French Actress Adele Haenel walked out of the room saying ‘shame!’ at this announcement, followed by a few other actresses. She recently denounced an alleged sexual assault by another French director in the early 2000s when she was 15. The actress who was presenting at the ceremony, Florence Foresti, did not return to the stage after the announcement of Polanski's award. Later, she updated her Instagram story to a black screen with the word "disgusted".
Latest Coronavirus outbreak in Europe
By Anastasia Zeng
With the coronavirus epidemic gradually controlled by government in China, the confirmed coronavirus cases in Europe countries are increasing rapidly. Globally, more than 86,000 confirmed cases were in more than 50 countries.
According to BBC news, three more people from England have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of UK cases to 23 by 29thFebruary 2020. Among the latest three confirmed cases, two of the patients had recently returned from Italy, which is the earliest country that imposed lockdown in response to tackle new outbreak.
Due to the ban, about 50,000 people cannot enter or leave several towns in northern Italy without permission. The Fanpage news website reported that since the known coronavirus infections surged to more than 1,000 cases just over a week, the Italian government considers reporting only deaths from new coronaviruses, number of severe illnesses and number of symptomatic patients in order to ease the public panic. Besides, Italian virologist Ilaria Capua claims Italy is currently one of the countries with the highest number of infections.
In France, the total number of confirmed cases reached 100 on 29th February. The last day of Paris’s annual agricultural fair for Sunday has been cancelled because of the ban of all indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people. “We’re at the stage of the epidemic,” said Health minister Olivier Véran, “We will do our best to limit it”.
The latest outbreaks in other countries in Europe are roughly as follows as far. Iran has confirmed 593 cases infected patients and 43 patients died. The confirmed cases of new coronavirus exceeded 60 with 5 days in Germany. Qatar, Ecuador and Finland are reported their first confirmed case separately.
The impact of coronavirus on the European business
By Emmanuel Jeanny
Since December 2019, a new virus appeared in the city of Wuhan in China. Quickly, the virus spread to many countries, becoming a pandemic which affected massively European countries for the past few days, thus endangering the European and even global economy.
In the aviation industry, many European companies have suspended their flight to China like Air France or even British Airways that extended the suspension of the flights between London and Beijing and Shanghai to the end of March. Recently, global traffic slowdown hit European flights, British airways and easyJet announced the reducing to their flights with Italy.
These decisions can jeopardize the European economy. Indeed, last week Air France declared that this pandemic could wipe up to €200m (£167.4m) off earnings by April if flights to China remain suspended. It is a big business lost for the French company which makes up 5.5% of its traffic with China. Furthermore, the outbreak came just as Air France was expecting a pick-up in 2020 due to an easing of global trade tensions.
However, it is hard to evaluate the real impact of the coronavirus on the company, the finance chief Frederic Gagey declared “That’s the hypothesis we’re using for the moment, but we don’t know how credible it is. Obviously if [the coronavirus] lasts longer, the impact will be heavier.”
But the aviation is not the only sector impacted, Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services mentioned the tourism adding that “is was only the beginning”. About 250 000 Chinese travellers did not travel between January and February, which represents a loss of two million overnight stays. European carriers will also be affected, the statement said.
The recent propagation in Italy also affected carmakers, some will be forced to shut down productions, after the closing of an electronic factory in Lombardy in order to prevent from the propagation of the virus. It has been declared that if the 600 employees of the the northern Italian factory could not return to work within days, production lines of subsidiaries will have to close. It is indeed all the supply chain that is impacted by the pandemic.
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