PARIS: France is hiring 700 additional customs officers and extra border control facilities in preparation for a potential no deal in Britain’s negotiations over its divorce from the European Union, the minister in charge of customs said on Tuesday.
Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said half of the new customs officers would be hired by the end of this year, ahead of Britain’s expected departure on March 29, 2019.
“We absolutely have to prepare for the worse, that is to say that in March there is no legal relationship with Great Britain,” Darmanin told France Bleu Nord radio.
With less than six months to go until Britain leaves the EU there is still no agreement on divorce terms and clarity on a new trade relationship.
Darmanin said that while the northern port of Dunkirk regularly handled goods from outside the EU, the government was looking for a new customs facility in nearby Calais, which handles mainly trade with Britain.
The fortunes of Calais and the wider Hauts-de-France region are closely intertwined with the UK’s future trade ties.
Darmanin also said plans were being made for a new scanner that can scan freight trains passing through the Channel Tunnel linking England and France at 30 kilometers an hour.
“The departure of our British friends from the common market will have negative consequences,” Darmanin said.
“We have to re-establish the border because otherwise people in the single market will not understand why companies from outside the EU’s rules have access to the single market.”
Separately, Darmanin told Les Echos newspaper that merchandise coming from Britain could face up to four separate customs procedures under a post-Brexit regime against only one currently.
That could translate into an extra two minutes per truck going through border controls, which could potentially lead to long queues gridlock in ports, he said.
France ramps up border controls in preparation for no-deal Brexit
France ramps up border controls in preparation for no-deal Brexit
- France is hiring 700 additional customs officers and extra border control facilities
- Plans were being made for a new scanner that can scan freight trains passing through the Channel Tunnel linking England and France
Brazil court rejects new Bolsonaro appeal against coup conviction
- The far-right firebrand, in office from 2019 to 2022, was found guilty of having led a scheme to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after Bolsonaro’s failed re-election bid
BRASILIA: A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Friday rejected a fresh appeal by jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro against his coup conviction, declaring it inadmissible, according to a court document seen by AFP.
Bolsonaro, 70, began serving a 27-year sentence in November after the country’s highest court declared he had exhausted all appeals.
Nevertheless, his attorneys filed an appeal on the merits of the case three days after he was jailed.
Bolsonaro’s earlier failed legal effort targeted “ambiguities, omissions, and contradictions” in the trial.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial against Bolsonaro, said he did not recognize the fresh appeal, which requires two judges to have voted against a conviction.
Only one of five judges on the Supreme Court panel voted not to convict Bolsonaro.
The far-right firebrand, in office from 2019 to 2022, was found guilty of having led a scheme to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after Bolsonaro’s failed re-election bid.
He has maintained his innocence, declaring he was a victim of political persecution.
The conservative-controlled Congress this week passed a law that could reduce Bolsonaro’s sentence to just over two years.
Lula has vowed to veto the law, however Congress has the last word and can override him.
On Friday, in response to a request from Bolsonaro’s lawyers, the Supreme Court authorized his transfer to a hospital in Brasilia for surgery to treat recurring hiccups and an inguinal hernia.
Earlier Friday, police said in a statement that an official medical exam confirmed Bolsonaro has a hernia “that requires elective surgical repair.”
According to the statement, medical experts recommended the procedures take place “as soon as possible” due to the impact of Bolsonaro’s health issues on his sleep and eating habits, and an “increased risk of complications from the hernia.”
Bolsonaro has a history of abdominal issues after being stabbed during his 2018 election campaign, and has required several follow-up surgeries.
His lawyers have also requested Bolsonaro be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest for health reasons, but Moraes rejected that request Friday.
Bolsonaro had been under house arrest until shortly before the official start of his jail term, when he was detained after he took a soldering iron to his ankle monitoring bracelet in what the court saw as an escape attempt.
The former president said he was acting under medication-induced paranoia.
