BRUSSELS: The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator warned Britain Tuesday against undercutting EU rules and regulations that underpin anything from social protections to food security when it leaves the bloc.
Michel Barnier said any attempt by Britain to gain a competitive edge through the use of what is termed “dumping” would jeopardize hopes the country has for a smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU.
Barnier lauded the rules the EU created together with Britain for 44 years to create the “social market economy” that shelters citizens and workers from excesses of deregulation.
“Does Britain also want to leave that model and go toward regulatory competition — call it dumping — against us,” he asked legislators at the European Parliament in Strasbourg France.
“I recommend that we keep a close eye on the regulatory divergence, this dumping,” he said, warning that it could become a key obstacle if Britain wants to get a smooth exit from the EU.
Key departure conditions will need to be approved unanimously by the EU nations and the European Parliament.
Barnier also urged British Prime Minister Theresa May to speed up the Brexit negotiations and define her vision for the future relationship between the country and the 27 remaining member states. Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 but is looking to agree a transition agreement for a period after Brexit in order to smooth out the impact.
That frustration was reinforced by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who also told EU legislators that “there is increasing urgency to negotiate this orderly withdrawal.”
Juncker said the EU needs “further clarity” on such issues like a trading relationship and the EU’s only land border with the UK on the island of Ireland.
Barnier added that British expectations were still far too high and that the country won’t be allowed to keep those bits of membership it wants while shedding others.
“It is an astonishing concept to believe that the 27 members and your parliament could accept convergence when the UK wants it and at the same time leave it the possibility to diverge when it give Britain an advantage,” he told the legislators.
Britain has said it no longer wants to be part of the EU’s seamless and tariff-free internal market and the customs union. That’s pushed the EU to consider a traditional free trade association as the best option available to both sides.
Barnier also made it clear that if Britain wanted to remain in some EU agencies like those on chemicals, aviation or medicines, it would also have to recognize the authority of the EU’s top court in those areas.
“You cannot be part of our agencies without the legal commitment to apply EU law and the jurisdiction of the court of justice,” Barnier said.
Overall, he added, “it is time to face up to the hard facts.”
EU pressing UK to speed up Brexit negotiations
EU pressing UK to speed up Brexit negotiations
Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro undergoes double hernia surgery
- He was granted court permission to leave prison after federal police doctors confirmed that he needed the procedure
- The surgery in Brasilia is expected to last about four hours
SAO PAULO: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is undergoing double hernia surgery on Thursday at a hospital in the country’s capital, his family said.
Bolsonaro, who has been hospitalized since Wednesday, has been serving a 27-year prison sentence since November for an attempted coup.
He was granted court permission to leave prison after federal police doctors confirmed that he needed the procedure. The surgery in Brasilia is expected to last about four hours, the DF Star hospital medical team said in a statement Wednesday.
Doctors say Bolsonaro’s double hernia causes him pain. The former leader, who was in power between 2019 and 2022, has gone through several other surgeries since he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in 2018.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and sentenced him to prison, authorized the procedure, but denied the former president’s request for house arrest after he leaves the hospital.
Bolsonaro doesn’t have any contact with the few other inmates at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia, where he is held and where his 12-square-meter (around 130-square-foot) room has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a television and a desk, according to authorities.
He has free access to his doctors and lawyers, but other visitors must receive approval from the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, de Moraes authorized Bolsonaro’s sons to visit him while he’s hospitalized. His wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, is accompanying him.
Early Thursday, his eldest son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, told reporters before the surgery that his father had written a letter confirming he had appointed him as his political party’s presidential candidate in next year’s election. Flávio Bolsonaro announced on Dec. 5 that he will challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, as the candidate of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.
The senator read the letter to journalists, and his office released a reproduction of it to the media.
“He represents the continuation of the path of prosperity that I began well before becoming president, as I believe we must restore the responsibility of leading Brazil with justice, resolve and loyalty to the aspirations of the Brazilian people,” Bolsonaro said in the handwritten letter, dated Dec. 25.
The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democratic system following his 2022 election defeat.
The plot included plans to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and de Moraes. There was also a plan to encourage an insurrection in early 2023.
Bolsonaro was also convicted on charges that include leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He has denied any wrongdoing.
