The Full English Brexit Edition
57th Edition | 6–12 July 2018
It’s the 57th Edition of Brussels Brief* and we are back with English exits, NATO bills, and MEP expenses.
It is a mark of the Anglo-Saxon world to be pioneers in politics. Brexit in the UK and Trump in the US respectively predicted and propelled a populist revolution in the Western world. Now another trend is being led by the anglophone world, quitting cabinet members. The Trump administration which is in its second year has now seen countless cabinet and White House officials leave his administration (to the joy of the Daily Show). Theresa May’s Conservative government is not far behind in Brexit Britain. After this week’s high profile Brexit resignations, the question remains on whether Theresa May has the staying power of the Donald and whether Brexit will go ahead at all. Populism and its proponents, it seems, are as fickle as we always suspected.
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The Brussels Brief Team 👨👩👦 ✌️ 🇪🇺
Next week will be our season finale before the summer break. Brussels is already in sleep mode despite the NATO chaos.
“Politicians come and go but the problems they have created for people remain”
- Donald Tusk
The European Council President in a not-so-subtle reference to the departures of David Davis and Boris Johnson from the UK government and their role in creating the Brexit beast in the first place.
🔝 FRONT PAGE — Top News This Week
Trump Dump. US President Donald Trump has become a staple of EU politics. His trade policy has angered some of his closest partners and every move he makes seems to provoke a sober response from EU Council President Donald Tusk. His latest visit to Europe which kicked off in Brussels on Wednesday was preceded by a Twitter dig at the EU on trade and on EU countries on not paying their bills for NATO. The digs continued on Wednesday morning as he dug into Germany claiming that the EU’s biggest economy “is totally controlled by Russia” making reference to the Nord Stream gas pipeline and Germany’s dependence on Russian energy. He then went on to claim that EU allies pay 4% of GDP on defence as the US alone still makes up for 22% of NATO spending. As Trump trolled the EU, he could find his match in the UK where he is scheduled to visit today and could be met with protests and a giant floating baby with his face on it. As the US and UK further themselves from Europe however, NATO and the EU have pledged to strengthen their alliance amidst Trump’s threat to pull outif his demands are not met. [Channel 4 News, CNN, CNBC, Time, Citylab, EUobserver, Politico Europe]
💸 ITS THE ECONOMY, STUPID — Top Economic, Trade and Innovation News
For the love of memes. Facing the risk of death by censorship, the Internet survived for the time being. A proposed new copyright law, which critics have claimed would kill off the internet as we know it today, was voted down in the European Parliament,after a surprising lobby effort by tech giants like Google and Apple, who found unexpected allies in Wikipedia, which, took unprecedented steps to encourage its users to lobby for a no-vote, shutting down several of its language sites. The e-copyright fight centers over how copyright holders should be compensated and the implications on the free flow of information on the internet. Especially requirements for digital platforms to screen content was seen as a possible deathblow to memes and GIFs as well as encyclopaedic sites (Wikipedia), which have become an internet staple in recent years. The result of the vote 278 in favor, 318 against and 31 abstentions, means the matter is now referred back to committee before a new vote is scheduled to take place in September. In the meme-time enjoy the results with a dance like the Dutch PermRep. [CNBC, Gizmodo, The New York Times, The Verge]
Olives of wrath. The Trump trade chaos continued after the US president found a new black sheep to pick a fight with. This time the source of the president’s sour gaze is Spanish olives which Trump found ripe for a 34% tariff which came into effect last month has prompted the Commission to promise to take countermeasures. At the same time as Trump intensified conflict with his allies, China, which is also in the middle of an escalating trade war with Trump is on the charm offensive in Europe as it seeks to find new allies. This has sparked renewed interest in Eastern Europe where hopes of infrastructure investments from Chinese businesses are rising, although there’s still far (silk) road to travel between East and West before any agreement is reached. [Euractiv, South China, Morning Post, Deutsche Welle ]
🇬🇧 STATE OF THE (DIS)UNION — Brexit Stories
Walk the plank. After the two years of talks and a six-month lull, this week brought Brexit back into the fore as the UK government established a coordinated position on Brexit …for about 48 hours. The now infamous ‘Chequers compromise’, which was carefully negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May and her cabinet in her official country house during the weekend, is the playbook for the next (and last) set of negotiations with the EU on Brexit before the UK leaves in March. The devil is in the detail, and that was published in a White Paper today, but the agreement’s summarywas enough to cause a political earthquake. Brexit Secretary David Davis spectacularly resigned on Monday, accusing the position he saw would undermine the UK’s position going forward. Davis, an ardent Brexiteer in the Tory party’s hard/soft split, opened Pandora’s box of resignations, none more high profile than Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary and would-be pretender to Theresa May’s throne who called the Chequer’s agreement nothing more than “polishing a turd”. Oratory skills aside, Johnson’s (and Davis) well-publicised opposition to the Prime Minister’s tack on Brexit is one that is felt amongst some in his party and her position as leader is now seriously undermined despite having replaced these two figures almost immediately. On the EU side, the response was philosophical, if not optimistic, with Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier assuring that 80% of Brexit had already been agreed. However, in private, EU diplomats are more pessimistic in the prospect of facing a whole new government in the UK by the turn of the summer which would undermine the work done so far and prove damaging to the EU’s interest of avoiding a hard Brexit. [BBC News, CNN, The Guardian, Sky News, Politico Europe, EUobserver, Buzzfeed, Bloomberg]
- The number of EU member states that will dispute the FIFA World Cup Final on Sunday. The all-EU semi-finals saw the EU’s newest member state, Croatia, ironically beat England, part of the outgoing EU member state.
🏢 BRUXELLES MA BELLE — News about the city
Win-win situation. The week started out just right with Belgium in the race for the World Cup finals. Sadly, for those of you not up to date, it lost to the French (everyone’s favourite, we know). The Red Devils held their own, with a World Cup performance that it was worthy of being up there among the best countries, unlike how they’ve been treated in the past. Plus, now that England’s out, the EU’s had a chance to get political: be it a French or a Croatian win, the cup is staying in the EU, where it’s been since 2006! [Politico Europe, The Independent]
Bubble trouble. Ecuador has sent a court order for the arrest of former President Rafael Correa, currently seeking refuge in his wife’s home in Belgium. Correa has been long considered a problematic leader during his time as President of Ecuador from 2007–2017. Ecuador has him currently under investigation for the 2012 kidnapping of political rival and former lawmaker, Fernando Balda. While Correa has denied any connection to the crime on Twitter, Ecuadorians recently voted to ensure presidential limits in an effort to restrict the possibility of his return in 2021. In the meantime, Correa is hinting at the possibility of seeking asylum in the state of Belgium, one he claims relies respectfully on the rule of law. [Expatica]
✂️ EXTRA — From The Cutting Room Floor
Pockets full of gravy. Having long been a champion for transparency in the EU and pushed for Commission officials to avoid conflict of interests, one could easily make the assumptions that our elected politicians in the European Parliament would eagerly take steps to follow equally strict rules for themselves. Alas, personal interest has a way of blurring ethics. MEPs voted against increasing scrutiny for where the money they get for expenses, some €4,416 pr. month, or a total of €40 million per year, ends up. Led by the conservative EPP group, the suggested rules were voted down in committee. This comes at the same time Transparency International has published a report showing that one-third of MEPs earn extra income on the side, which has led to criticism and possible undue influence on politicians, especially for jobs started after they took office. Good thing you have time to evaluate your MEPs financial prudence in next year’s EP election. [Politico Europe, Transparency International EU, Euractiv]
Summertime all the time. Coming off the back of a record-breaking warm summer, the European Commission now wants to ensure that the weather is official policy, or at least that summertime remains the only time worth taking. The changes from summer to winter time and back again goes back decades and has long caused many people headaches and qualms and is being accused of causing more economic damage from disoriented workers than gains from resting light bulbs. Enter the Commission which has launched an EU wide citizen consultation in order to get to the bottom of things and learn if Europeans want to continue resetting their alarm clocks twice a year or if the season for daylight saving went out with the last analogue wrist watch. To anyone who has the time and feeling of citizen’s duty can be accessed here and the public consultation runs until August 16. [Smitshonian.com, Politico Europe]
💡 OPINION — Top minds muse on the European project
The future is Ukraine. Ivan Miklos, former prime minister of the Slovak Republic, claims that in the last 4 years Ukraine has made more progress than its being credited for. Economically, he argues, currency rates have stabilised, inflation has decreased and a strengthening of the banking sector has allowed for prosperous growth. In terms of public administration, since 2016 all public entities, as far down as municipalities, have had to switch to an electronic public procurement system known as ProZorro which is internationally-renowned for its efficiency. And if that weren’t enough, because of this, Ukraine has now eliminated its 3rd largest cause of corruption. So yes, there is much room for improvement and progress, claims Miklos, but it doesn’t hurt to take a moment to acknowledge the vast and considerable growth Ukraine has undertaken in the last 4 years. [Euractiv]
🎧 PRESS PLAY — Media Corner
🔊 Podcast of the Week. American author and historian, Timothy Snyder, muses on the EU and lack of identity as a problem of coherence. [Timothy Snyder]
🎥 Video(s) of the Week. British comedy legend John Cleese on Brexit, voting Leave and why he’s leaving the UK to live in the Caribbean in protest over the Brexit debate and the “lying and triviality” of the UK press. [BBC Newsnight]
✏️ Cartoon(s) of the Week. Meditarranean Blue Flag, Theresa May on shaky ground, NATO Summit [Cagle.com]
📺 GIF of the Week
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