BEIJING: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government will consider applying to join a second possible multi-billion-euro European Union fund for defense projects as his ministers prepare for talks with EU counterparts this week.
The European Commission is considering launching a second edition of its SAFE loans scheme as Europe seeks to bolster its defenses due to growing fears of Russia and doubts about US security commitments to Europe under President Donald Trump.
A British plan to join the original 150 billion-euro ($177 billion) SAFE fund broke down in November after Starmer’s government refused to pay a financial contribution to join, representing a setback for a post-Brexit reset of relations.
Asked if Britain would seek to join a new version of SAFE, Starmer said Europe needed to do more to rearm.
“That should require us to look at schemes like SAFE and others to see whether there is a way in which we can work more closely together,” he told reporters on his way to China last week. The comments were scheduled for release on Sunday.
“Whether it’s SAFE or other initiatives, it makes good sense for Europe in the widest sense of the word — which is the EU plus other European countries — to work more closely together.”
European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and other EU officials are due in London for talks this week.
Starmer has tried to work more closely with the EU and remove some post-Brexit trade barriers in contrast to the rancorous relations between previous Conservative governments and the EU as they negotiated Britain’s departure from the bloc, which was completed in 2020.
He has also taken a leading role in co-ordinating European support for Ukraine.
Under the SAFE scheme, the EU jointly borrowed money on financial markets to lend to countries in the bloc for defense projects.
Asked about recent criticism from Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party is leading in the polls, who said the governing Labour government was moving too close to the EU, Starmer said the Brexit campaigner had repeatedly misled the public.
“I wouldn’t listen too much to what Nigel Farage has to say about this,” Starmer said. ($1 = 0.8440 euros)
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UK wants closer EU defense ties with potential bid to join new SAFE fund
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UK wants closer EU defense ties with potential bid to join new SAFE fund
- European Union Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and other EU officials are due in London for talks this week
- Starmer has tried to work more closely with the EU and remove some post-Brexit trade barriers
French court rejects bid to reopen probe into black man’s death in custody
PARIS: France’s top court on Wednesday ruled against reopening an investigation into the 2016 death of a young black man in police custody, confirming a previous decision to dismiss the case against three arresting officers.
The Court of Cassation’s decision definitively closes the case nearly a decade after the death of 24-year-old Adama Traore following his arrest in the Paris suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise, a fatality that triggered national outcry over police brutality and racism.
Traore’s family was contesting a 2024 appeal court ruling confirming a prior decision to drop the case, after an investigation led to no charges against the military policemen — or gendarmes — involved and therefore no case in court.
A lawyer representing his family announced after Wednesday’s ruling they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights to “have France convicted.”
Three gendarmes pursued the young man on July 19, 2016, when temperatures reached nearly 37C, pinning him down in an apartment, after which he told officers he was “having trouble breathing.”
He then fainted during the journey to a gendarmerie station, where he died.
’Probably’ not fatal
In 2023, French investigating magistrates dropped the case against the three gendarmes, in a ruling that was upheld on appeal in 2024.
They had been tasked with probing whether the three arresting officers used disproportionate force against Traore during a police operation targeting his brother, Bagui.
According to the magistrates, Traore’s death was caused by heatstroke that “probably” would not have been fatal without the officers’ intervention — though it concluded their actions were within legal bounds.
His family however has accused the gendarmes of failing to help the young man, who was found by rescue services unconscious and handcuffed behind his back.
In their appeal, Traore’s family criticized the justice system for not carrying out a reconstitution of events as part of the investigation.
But prosecutors requested that the appeal be dismissed.
Internal investigations
Activists have repeatedly accused French police of violence and racism, but few cases make it to criminal court in France as most are dealt with internally.
In January, several thousand people protested in Paris over the death in custody of a Mauritanian immigrant worker, El Hacen Diarra, 35, who died after passing out at a police station following his violent arrest.
Paris police launched an internal investigation after video filmed by neighbors, shared on social media, showed a policeman punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by and watches.
In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries to a black man, Theo Luhaka, during a stop-and-search in 2017.
Prosecutors have also called for a police officer to be tried over the 2023 killing of a teenager at a traffic stop, in a case that sparked nationwide protests.
A court is to rule in March whether he will face a criminal trial over the killing of 17-year-old Nahel M.
Europe’s top rights court in June condemned France over its police discriminating against a young man during identity checks, in the first such ruling against the country over alleged racial profiling.
The Court of Cassation’s decision definitively closes the case nearly a decade after the death of 24-year-old Adama Traore following his arrest in the Paris suburb of Beaumont-sur-Oise, a fatality that triggered national outcry over police brutality and racism.
Traore’s family was contesting a 2024 appeal court ruling confirming a prior decision to drop the case, after an investigation led to no charges against the military policemen — or gendarmes — involved and therefore no case in court.
A lawyer representing his family announced after Wednesday’s ruling they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights to “have France convicted.”
Three gendarmes pursued the young man on July 19, 2016, when temperatures reached nearly 37C, pinning him down in an apartment, after which he told officers he was “having trouble breathing.”
He then fainted during the journey to a gendarmerie station, where he died.
’Probably’ not fatal
In 2023, French investigating magistrates dropped the case against the three gendarmes, in a ruling that was upheld on appeal in 2024.
They had been tasked with probing whether the three arresting officers used disproportionate force against Traore during a police operation targeting his brother, Bagui.
According to the magistrates, Traore’s death was caused by heatstroke that “probably” would not have been fatal without the officers’ intervention — though it concluded their actions were within legal bounds.
His family however has accused the gendarmes of failing to help the young man, who was found by rescue services unconscious and handcuffed behind his back.
In their appeal, Traore’s family criticized the justice system for not carrying out a reconstitution of events as part of the investigation.
But prosecutors requested that the appeal be dismissed.
Internal investigations
Activists have repeatedly accused French police of violence and racism, but few cases make it to criminal court in France as most are dealt with internally.
In January, several thousand people protested in Paris over the death in custody of a Mauritanian immigrant worker, El Hacen Diarra, 35, who died after passing out at a police station following his violent arrest.
Paris police launched an internal investigation after video filmed by neighbors, shared on social media, showed a policeman punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by and watches.
In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries to a black man, Theo Luhaka, during a stop-and-search in 2017.
Prosecutors have also called for a police officer to be tried over the 2023 killing of a teenager at a traffic stop, in a case that sparked nationwide protests.
A court is to rule in March whether he will face a criminal trial over the killing of 17-year-old Nahel M.
Europe’s top rights court in June condemned France over its police discriminating against a young man during identity checks, in the first such ruling against the country over alleged racial profiling.
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