The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Jean-Claude Juncker

  • U.S and EU agree to avoid trade clash

    The United States has agreed to work towards lowering trade barriers with the European Union, Donald Trump said on Wednesday after a meeting with European Commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker.

    The two agreed to launch a “new phase” in relations and work towards zero tariffs, the U.S president said.

    The BBC reports they also agreed to increase trade in services and agriculture, including greater U.S soy bean exports to the EU.

    The agreements come amid heightened tensions between the U.S and EU.

    The two leaders defused what had threatened to become a trade war between the two blocs, fuelled by tariffs set by Mr. Trump on European steel and aluminium exports, and threats to expand the tariffs to cars.

    The relationship between the U.S and Europe had been further frayed by Mr. Trump’s apparent fondness for the Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacks on NATO and the EU.

  • EU appoints woman as Head of Commission’s Cabinet for 1st time

    EU appoints woman as Head of Commission’s Cabinet for 1st time

    The EU  President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday appointed a woman for the first time as his Head of Cabinet“The President appointed today Clara Alberola as his new Head of Cabinet with effect from March 1.

    “Mrs Alberola is the first woman and the first Spanish national in the history of the European Commission to head the Commission President’s office,” the Commission said.

    Martinez Alberola, who served as Deputy Head of Cabinet, will assume the office from Martin Selmayr, who has been appointed as the EU Commission’s Secretary-General following the retirement of Alexander Italianer.

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  • Merkel, Macron pledge to lead EU forward post-Brexit

    Merkel, Macron pledge to lead EU forward post-Brexit

    French President, Emmanuel Macron, won backing from Angela Merkel for plans to reform the EU after Brexit, founded on what the German chancellor called “intense” cooperation between Paris and Berlin.

    But during an EU dinner in Estonia that lasted till midnight ahead of a formal summit on Friday, some leaders sounded wary of the youthful new French leader’s ambitious ideas, set out in a speech at the Sorbonne on Tuesday, for deepening EU integration.

    Merkel, re-elected for a fourth term on Sunday but weakened by the rise of an insurgent eurosceptic opposition, met Macron for half an hour before dinner and, according to a French aide, welcomed his speech as “visionary” and a return of co-founder France as a driving force in the European Union project.

    But she also noted differences.

    Some of her potential new coalition partners, along with northern governments like the Dutch and Finns, are very dubious about his suggestions for pooling budgets with less fiscally austere states in the south.

    “As far as the proposals were concerned, there was a high level of agreement between Germany and France.

    “We must still discuss the details, but I am of the firm conviction that Europe can’t just stay still but must continue to develop,” she said.

    French officials said Macron, who they said spoke again with Merkel at length after the late-night dinner, was not trying to impose his ideas but to show others that they were in their common interest and recognised that some needed time to reflect.

    “The idea is not about forcing people to give a binary response.

    France cannot force things,” one said, adding that Paris hoped leaders could agree on a way to work on the ideas in the coming weeks before an October summit in Brussels.

    “The dinner,” a Macron aide said, “Was a chance to share further the Sorbonne project … Things are on the move.”

    An EU official said that the dinner had shown there was a “strong and shared willingness to maintain the unity” and that the EU should be “open to address new ideas” while continuing to work to deliver concrete results for citizens.

    Summit Chair, Donald Tusk, would consult governments in the coming two weeks and make proposals for how to follow up on the debate about reform at a summit in Brussels on Oct. 19-20.

    European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, proposed similar but different reforms earlier this month and called for a landmark summit of the 27 in Romania on the day Britain leaves the EU in 18 months time, on March 30, 2019.

    British Prime Minister, Theresa May, also attended the dinner in spite of Britain’s increasing isolation as it prepares to quit.

    She took the opportunity of Friday’s “digital summit” in Tallinn to visit British troops on a NATO mission in northern Estonia and pledged post-Brexit security cooperation with European neighbours confronting Russian threats.

    May arrived with a better sense of whether her keynote major Brexit speech last Friday has succeeded in unblocking talks in Brussels on Britain’s divorce package.

    The chief EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, praised on Thursday a “new dynamic” to Brexit negotiations created by concessions made by May although progress was still not sufficient to allow discussions on future trade relations.

    EU officials said she should not expect direct feedback in Tallinn from the other leaders.

    But she was expected to talk to Merkel and others individually as she pursues her quest for agreement to open talks on close ties with the bloc.

    Friday’s talks on a “digital agenda” for Europe will range from ways to ease cross-border flows of data while protecting privacy to cyber security and taxing online businesses.

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  • Brexit: UK offer, a good start – Merkel

    Brexit: UK offer, a good start – Merkel

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described United Kingdom plans to ensure the rights of European Union citizens in Britain after Brexit as “a good start.”

    However, she said there were “many, many other questions” about Brexit and there was “still a lot to do.”

    The UK proposal was unveiled by Prime Minister Theresa May at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.

    The BBC reports that it would grant EU migrants who had lived in the UK for five years at the cut-off date new “UK settled status.”

    The cut-off date has yet to be announced, but will be sometime between March 2017 and the moment the UK actually leaves the EU.

    Those who qualify for settled status will be allowed to stay in the country and access health, education and other benefits.

    The plan is expected to affect 3.2 million EU citizens now living in the UK, around a million of whom have lived in the country less than five years.

    Their rights – and the rights of UK citizens living in the rest of the EU – are among the thorny issues that have to be resolved early on in Brexit talks, along with the UK’s divorce bill and the Northern Ireland border.

    The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, described the offer as a “first step,” but added it was “not sufficient.”

    Mrs. Merkel was more positive, calling it a “good start.”

    “Theresa May made clear today that EU citizens who have been in Great Britain for five years can keep their full rights. That’s a good start,” she said at the end of Thursday’s talks.

  • EU needs stronger defence arm – Juncker

    EU needs stronger defence arm – Juncker

    European Union nations must step up their military co-operation as they cannot simply rely on the United States to defend them, EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has said.

    “Our deference to NATO can no longer be used as a convenient alibi to argue against greater European efforts.

    “We have no other choice than to defend our own interests in the Middle East, in climate change, in our trade agreements,” the BBC quoted Mr. Juncker as saying in Prague, the Czech Republic capital.

    U.S President Donald Trump has urged NATO allies to boost defence spending.

    Last month German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe could no longer “completely depend” on the U.S and United Kingdom, following the election of President Trump and the triggering of Brexit.

    The UK and France are by far the strongest military powers in the EU, so UK withdrawal potentially weakens Europe’s collective military muscle.

     

     

     

     

  • G7 leaders brace for clash with Trump on trade, climate

    G7 leaders brace for clash with Trump on trade, climate

    Leaders of the world’s rich nations braced for contentious talks with Donald Trump at a G7 summit in Sicily on Friday after the U.S. president lambasted NATO allies for not spending more on defense and accused Germany of “very bad” trade policies.

    Trump’s confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which America’s partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change.

    The summit will kick off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theater perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, before the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. begin talks on terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

    “We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means,” White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters late Thursday.

    He also predicted “fairly robust” talks on whether Trump should honor a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

    Trump, who dismissed man-made global warming a “hoax” during his election campaign, is not expected to decide at the summit whether he will stick with the Paris deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama.

    Even if a decision is not forthcoming, European leaders have signaled that they will push Trump hard on the Paris emissions deal, which has comprehensive support across the continent.

    “This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy,” said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

    The summit, being held near Europe’s most active volcano, Mount Etna, is the final leg of a nine-day tour for Trump, his first foreign trip since becoming president, that started in the Middle East.

    On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, he accused members of the military alliance of owing “massive amounts of money” to the U.S. and NATO, even though allied contributions are voluntary.

    According to German media reports, he also condemned Germany for “very bad” trade policies in meetings with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk, signaling that he would take steps to limit the sales of German cars in the U.S.

    EU officials declined to confirm the reports.

    Trump will not be the only G7 newcomer.

    French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

    May is expected to leave a day early, following Monday’s suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people and was allegedly carried out by a young Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

    Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 225 km from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

    No fewer than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

    Italy is eager for wealthy nations to do much more to help develop Africa’s economy and make it more appealing for youngsters to stay in their home countries.

    The leaders of Tunisia, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria and Kenya will join the discussions on Saturday to say what should be done to encourage investment and innovation on their continent.

    One country that won’t be present is Russia.

    It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

    Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

    Accusations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaign’s contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

    On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office.

  • EU invites Trump to early summit

    Leaders of the European Union institutions have invited United States President-elect, Donald Trump, to a summit as soon as he can schedule one.

    Reuters says this was mentioned as key in a letter signed by the leaders on Wednesday congratulating Trump on his election as the new U.S. President.

    “Today, it is more important than ever to strengthen transatlantic relations,” wrote Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, presidents respectively of the European Council, which groups member states, and the executive European Commission.

    “Only by cooperating closely can the EU and U.S continue to make a difference when dealing with unprecedented challenges such as Da’esh, the threats to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, climate change and migration,” they said.

    The leaders said that “fortunately, the EU-U.S strategic partnership was broad and deep, from our joint efforts to enhance energy security and address climate change.

    “Through EU-U.S collaboration on facing threats to security in Europe’s Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods and to the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

    “We should spare no effort to ensure that the ties that bind us remain strong and durable,” the EU leaders said.

  • Brexit: EU warns UK on freedom of movement

    There can be no pick and choose single market for the United Kingdom, European Union leaders have warned, after meeting in Brussels to discuss Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

    Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, said anyone seeking access to the EU’s market must adhere to criteria “without exception.”

    There could be “no negotiation without notification,” he said.

    The German and French leaders and European Council President, Donald Tusk said the same, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Tusk said there would be another meeting of EU leaders, excluding the UK, on September 16 in Bratislava to discuss so-called “Brexit.”

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel also reiterated that there would be no discussions with the UK until Article 50 was formally triggered by the UK government.

    “We wish that that would happen as soon as possible,” she said.

     

  • Cameron urges ‘bold EU leadership’

    British Prime Minister, David Cameron has called for “bold leadership” in a newspaper article laying out his criteria for the new president of the European Commission.

    This comes as Britain leads a campaign, with Sweden and the Netherlands, to block the candidacy of Luxembourg’s ex-prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has publicly backed Mr. Juncker.

    The BBC reports that Mr. Juncker has been nominated for the position by party groups in Europe.

    But Mr. Cameron is strongly opposed to Mr. Juncker’s belief in a closer political union between European Union member states and has described Brussels as “too big” and “too bossy.”

    In a highly unusual move, Mr. Cameron has decided to appeal directly to voters in other EU countries to make his case for a president – considered the most powerful job in Brussels – who can change the way the Commission is run, not deliver more of the same.

    In his newspaper article the prime minister says that, for many Europeans, the World Cup is the issue that seems most interesting right now.

    “Only a small minority will be following the debate about the presidency of European Commission.

    “But this is important because it goes to the heart of the way the EU takes decisions, the need to respect its rules, and the appropriate relationship between the nations of Europe and the EU institutions.