Category Archives: Brexit

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Members of Northern Irelands two largest pro-British parties are set to take part in legal action challenging part of Britains divorce deal with the European Union, the parties said on Sunday.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) are to join other pro-British figures to challenge the Northern Ireland Protocol, which has created trade barriers between the British region and the rest of the United Kingdom.

The protocol, which is designed to protect the European Unions single market without creating a land border on the island of Ireland, has caused significant disruption to trade since it came into force at the start of the year.

Some British companies have halted deliveries to Northern Ireland and some supermarkets have been left with empty shelves.

The DUP said several senior members would join other likeminded unionists as named parties in judicial review proceedings challenging the Northern Ireland Protocols compatibility with Act of Union 1800, the Northern Ireland Act of 1998 and the Belfast Agreement, it said in a statement.

Neither the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Northern Ireland Executive nor the people of Northern Ireland consented to the Protocol being put in place or the flow of goods from GB to NI being impeded by checks, said DUP leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster.

The protocol was part of an international agreement signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last year.

The regions second largest pro-British party, the Ulster Unionist Party, said in a statement it would seek to explore every political and legal avenue to get the NI protocol annulled.

Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Bernadette Baum

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Northern Ireland parties take legal action against Brexit deal - Reuters

Brexit finally became a reality on 31 December 2020, as the UK reached the end of the agreed Transition Period after the UKs departure from the EU.

The UK government has heralded Brexit as a historic opportunity to overhaul our outdated public procurement regime.With the UK government buying almost 300 billion of goods and services from the private sector every year, businesses in the UK and around the world must be asking how the new regime will affect them.How much will the process of government procurement in the UK actually change?

While the UK was an EU Member State, the government procurement process in the UK was based on EU directivesso both the regulatory environment and the practical tendering process was essentially harmonized across the EU.

One immediate change has been that the UK no longer participates in the open tender advertising process through the EUs Official Journal and Tenders Electronic Daily.The UK has started an equivalent system: an e-notification service called Find a Tender where UK government contracts above a value threshold are published (lower value contracts are published elsewhere).

In regulatory terms, the UKs procurement rules are largely staying the samefor now.Partly, the shortterm status quo is because the UK had traditionally translated the EUs procurement directives into national UK law via national implementing regulationsand those national regulations stay in place despite Brexit.

But going forward, of course, the UK has some degree of freedom to go its own way and do things differently from the EUalthough this freedom is not completely unrestricted because the UK is a party to the WTOs Agreement on Government Procurement (the GPA) and must stay within GPA requirements.

Membership to the GPA

Following the WTOs approval on 7 October 2020, the UK joined the GPA as an independent member from 1 January 2021.The GPAwhich weve discussed before in a previous alertis a voluntary trade agreement within the WTO, whereby signatory parties give access to foreign suppliers to their government procurement markets.Maintaining membership gives UK suppliers access to a 1.3 trillion international market, comprising of EU procurement markets as well as other markets (such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea).

However, the UK will have a reduced level of access to EU markets because the scope of activities covered by the GPA is narrower than membership to the EU single market.The UK has tried to address this gap in its trade talks with the EU.

Post-Brexit, non-UK bidders will have similar rights to bid for UK procurement opportunities as before the transition period ended.Bidders from other GPA countries will continue to have rights under the UK procurement regulations as long as the procurement scope is within the relevant GPA schedules.EU bidders will (continue to) have similar but slightly broader rights than other non-UK bidders on the basis of the coverage of the UK-EU trade and co-operation agreementsee below.

The UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA)

The TCA covers a broader range of EU/UK procurement activity than that provided for under the GPA.

The TCA provisions also add to the UK and EUs existing GPA obligations, e.g., a UK supplier must not be required to demonstrate experience in the territory of the EU (and vice versa) as a condition for participation.

Unlike the GPAwhich does not apply to contracts below certain value thresholdsthe TCA provides that, when procuring a contract below the relevant financial threshold, the procuring party must treat EU or UK suppliers no less favourably than suppliers from its own country (unless covered by specific GPA exceptions such as security).

Streamlining the national regulatory framework

The UK Government has also published a Green Paper signalling its intention to simplify the existing regulatory framework into a single set of rules for all public contract awards.In doing so, the UK proposes, for example, to reduce the procurement procedures available to buyers from seven to three:

The Green Paper proposes changes within these procurement procedures, including:

There are also plans to reform the legal review system as well as to tackle claims over minor issues that delay contract awards, such as a new fast track system and capping the level of damages available to successful bid protest complainants to a maximum amount equal to legal fees plus 1.5 times their bid costs.

Preparing for the new public procurement regime

While the Green Paper is likely a good indicator of changes to come, the Cabinet Office will still take several months to reflect on the proposed approach before deciding what to put into draft legislation in late 2021 or 2022.

One part likely to stick is the Cabinet Offices emphasis on cutting red tapea common theme from the current UK governments agenda (in fact, the prime minister recently addressed a conference of 250industry leaders, inviting them to propose areas where his government can cut bureaucracy). At the same time, the UK has already started to show that, where it can, it is likely to be prepared to dis-align itself with legacy EU rules where it feels that it makes sense to do so.

Even so, the UKs freedom to diverge from EU public procurement rules is somewhat limited by its GPA membership and the TCA. So, while the UK government procurement rules are likely to change, those changes may not be too fundamental.

Georgia-Louise Kinsella, a Trainee Solicitor in the London office, assisted in the preparation of this article.

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Post-Brexit Government Procurement In The UK Spot The Differences - JD Supra

And pro-Brexit think tank Facts4EU has concluded that the EUs economy has already shrunk by well over 2 trillion as a result of the UKs decision to quit. Former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib has hailed the research as proof that Project Fear doubters had been wrong all along.

The truth was always the inverse. It is the EU that needs us and our markets.

Mr Habib added: This work undertaken byFacts4EU.Orgreveals clearly the damage done to the EUs economy by the UK departing their failing project.

We should have marshalled this negotiating strength and driven a tougher bargain for ourselves.

In any event it is good to see yet another leg of project fear dismantled.

The figures also underlined the wisdom of severing ties with Brussels, Mr Habib said.

He explained: The EUs economy is forecast to become as ever smaller part of Global GDP.

Growth is not in the EU, it is elsewhere.

And that is where we should trade.

Former UKIP MEP David Campbell Bannerman added: The EU has lost its biggest single export market as a member - 15 percent of all its former GDP.

No wonder it is feeling these effects.

"Instead of trying to make life difficult for the UK for leaving, the EU needs to be far more cooperative and helpful - for its own sake.

Professor Daniel Hodson, chairman of the recently launched CityUnited project as well as of The City for Britain, said: They dont seem to want to recognise the new reality.

Let's look forward to the day when they come to realise, dump the politics, and deal with us constructively as a partner.

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Brussels nightmare: Losing UK will cost 60 billion in just two years - bombshell analysis - Daily Express

French level crossings display signs which say un train peut en cacher un autre. Like many European warnings, a literal translation can seem somewhat puzzling to British ears, even though the actual meaning is perfectly clear dont start crossing the tracks as soon as one train has passed because you may get hit by something coming the other way.

Think how different life would be for the food industry today if government had heeded similar advice when deciding not to extend the Brexit transition in the middle of a pandemic. As it is, we face a second major challenge even before the first one has gone. Or, to quote Michael Goves take-off turbulence analogy, we are not at the gin and tonic and peanut stage yetwhen we can enjoy a straight and level flight.

A key reason for this is that leaving the EU is much more like an operation to separate conjoined twins than a divorce. We have had years during which our economic viability has been dependent on shared supply chains and integrated business models. Separating these out requires the most delicate surgery, together with extensive preparation and support.

Many complications only become apparent once the process is underway, as is happening now with rules of origin. Did the negotiators really intend that Spanish wine bottled in Great Britain should be subject to tariffs if sent back to Spain? Or that tins of Italian tomatoes would suffer the same fate if shipped to the Republic of Ireland after being customs cleared here?

There are evidently ways around some of these issues. But they all come at a cost, in money and efficiency, at the very time when we are all doing everything we can to eliminate waste and conserve resources. And while people will get better at filling in the paperwork, which may itself improve, trading with our largest suppliers and biggest customers is going to be much harder than it used to be. Will that encourage us to look for alternative markets further afield? Over time perhaps, for those who are still around when that time comes.

Between now and then, there is friction where there was no friction before, ramping up further on imports from 1 April. That friction will inevitably end up on someones bottom line, which is the last place anyone wants friction to be.

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Brexit has complicated trade and that friction will end up hitting the bottom line - The Grocer

Two months on from the end of the EU transition period and the construction industry is still understanding the full impact of Brexit. There are questions that remain unanswered as we adjust to a new relationship with our biggest trading partner, but we are collectively far wiser from the lessons we have learnt.

In the face of the uncertainty that began with Brexit and was compounded by covid, businesses have been working with their supply chains to avoid disruption. This is an approach that we have long advised and many of our clients were exploring alternative sourcing and supply arrangements in the run up to 1January.

That advice remains pertinent not just today as we continue to navigate those challenges but also as the climate emergency looms large, and we plot a path to net zero. In all instances clients need an improved understanding of material and product options, their provenance and the logistics required to get them to sites.

Other sectors, especially parts of the food industry, are well ahead of construction when it comes to ensuring sustainability at every level of the supply chain

On the Brexit front, we remain reliant on European imports for many of the construction industrys key building blocks (including sawn wood, paints and structural steel), with 59% of imported materials used on UK building sites in 2019 sourced from the EU. While the sector avoided no deal tariffs, we should still expect fresh pinch points, bureaucracy and costs into the spring as volumes of imports rise after a quiet beginning to the year and the stockpiles amassed in December fall.

To safeguard project delivery over this turbulent period, investors and developers need to work closely with the construction industry and delve into the detail assessing exposure, stress-testing and war-gaming likely impacts, then swiftly eliminating weak links. This forensic focus will enable clients and their projects to adapt adjusting strategies to seek robust, reliable supply chain agreements.

> Also read:Countdown to zero: how can the UK meet its 2050 carbon targets?

>Clients bearing the brunt of covid costs, T&T says

Taking this approach will also stand them in good stead when it comes to net zero. Other sectors, especially parts of the food industry, are well ahead of construction when it comes to ensuring sustainability at every level of the supply chain. There is an opportunity for our sector to make a transformational leap forward. This may be by looking at the carbon miles of an imported material and the environmental impact of its production. It could shift our reliance on imported materials to a focus on UK-sourced products. This is critical to understanding the whole life cycle sustainability of a built asset.

The benefits of making supply chains more responsible also go wider than carbon. Since the start of the Brexit transition, the percentage of the total UK labour force made up of migrant labour fell from 13.4% to 10%, and this trend looks set to continue. Targeting investment towards home-grown UK talent to build up the skills we need here will support the levelling up agenda. It can also help to tackle issues such as modern slavery. To go full circle, such locally-based, modern construction skills play their own part in the carbon agenda too helping embed a new generational mindset of climate action.

In a year where both the climate crisis and Britain are in the spotlight with COP26 on the horizon all of this will serve to secure the construction sectors bright future as we emerge from Brexit and the pandemic. 2020 accelerated the pace of global change. This year presents us with the opportunity to sit in the driving seat for net zero.

Patricia Moore is UK managing director of Turner & Townsend

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Brexit-proof supply chains stand us in good stead to tackle net zero - Building

People who voted for Brexit are less enthusiastic about having a coronavirus vaccine, new research suggested yesterday.

A survey by YouGov for Oxford University showed Remainers are nearly 7 percentage points more likely to have the jab than people who voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, 93.8 per cent compared to 87.1 per cent.

Green Party voters are the least likely to take up a vaccine, a likelihood of 79.4 per cent, while people who voted for the Brexit Party in 2019 were 86.4 per cent likely to have the jab.

The i politics newsletter cut through the noise

By contrast, those who vote for mainstream parties are more likely to have the vaccine: 92.9 per cent for Conservatives, 93 per cent for Labour and 98 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.

Ben Ansell, professor of Comparative Democratic Institutionsat Oxfords Department of Politics and International Relations, suggested the gap could be to a link between vaccine hesitancy and a lack of trust in government and traditional politics.

However all respondents were generally more likely to take up the jab than they were five months ago.

Age was a strong predictor of vaccine willingness, with older people more likely to have the jab than younger groups. People on lower incomes were on average less willing to have a vaccine.

The survey of 1,200 UK residents were contacted in October 2020 and again earlier this month.

Researchers said there was no evidence that the UKs leading role in approving or developing the vaccine affected willingness to take it.

Prof Ansell said: People have become massively more supportive of taking the vaccine overall but important gaps remain especially among groups whose trust in politicians is typically lower: non-voters, younger citizens, and poorer households.

When so much of the UK Governmentslockdown exit strategy rests on successful vaccine roll out, these insightswill be of immediate importance to policymakers in both their internal deliberationon policy and their outward facing communication with the public.

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Covid vaccine hesitancy linked to Brexit voting patterns - iNews

Another trend, say Dutch observers, is for foreign businesses to put physical entities in the Netherlands. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agencyhas announced that218 Brexit companies have moved over since the 2016 referendum, including 45 financial businesses representing about 1,000 jobs.

Brexit is posing specific problems for specific types of companies -amongthem financial firms - and the Netherlands offers a very good ecosystem and safe space for companies in need of continuing their businesses on the European market, says spokesman Michiel Bakhuizen.

Amsterdam is a good alternative to the United States in his case, says Frank van Roij, managing director of ESG Core Investments. ESG is thefirst Spacto list on the Euronext Amsterdam this year; it wants to take a private business working onenergy transition or clean water public.

We are focusing on north-western Europe for finding a target company, and focusing on the environmental, social and governance [ESG] theme, he says. Here, we can facilitate a listing in the home market. ESG is a really important theme in Europe, with a lot of attention from institutional investors but also retail investors.Those elements made Amsterdam the obvious choice for us.

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Amsterdam takes on the City in post-Brexit battle - Telegraph.co.uk

The firebrand prime minister questioned the decision to appoint Jean-Claude Juncker as the European Commissions president in 2014 despite protests from London. Mr Orban suggested it was a big mistake to treat a member state that is also a nuclear power and one of the blocs previous security guarantors with that much contempt. Asked how Brexit should have been avoided in a radio interview, the Hungarian replied: Ill give an example: when the British prime minister wanted someone other than Jean-Claude Juncker to be the President of the European Commission, the majority voted against that wish.

You cant behave like that with one of the worlds largest economies, a nuclear power and a member of the Security Council.

Was it worth it?

Mr Juncker, a former Luxembourg prime minister, became the blocs top official in 2014 despite opposition from David Cameron.

The then prime minister was strongly opposed to Mr Junckers belief in ever closer political union between EU member states.

He believed the Luxembourger was too federalist, too old school and not the sort of person to deliver reform in Europe.

Mr Cameron held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to attempt to scupper the appointment.

He also spoke with then Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy and outgoing Commission boss Jose Manuel Barroso on the issue.

Despite the former British PMs attempts to block Mr Junckers appointment, the Luxembourger was eventually handed the EUs most powerful role.

Of the EUs then 28 leaders, only Mr Cameron and Mr Orban voted against Mr Juncker.

In his personal memoirs, Mr Cameron recounted how the stitch-up had help fuel euroscepticism in Britain.

He wrote: Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg, was particularly dismissive of British concerns.

As a finance minister, hed been there at Maastricht when the journey to monetary union began.

MUST READ:Alex Salmond PULLS OUT of Holyrood committee hearing set for today

After that historic vote, there was no love lost between Mr Cameron and Mr Juncker.

The Luxembourger branded the Briton one of the greatest destroyers of modern times and said the former prime minister had banned the EU from playing any role in the Brexit referendum campaign.

We were forbidden from being present in any way in the referendum by Mr Cameron, who is one of the great destroyers of modern times, Mr Juncker said in 2019.

Because he said the Commission is even less popular in the UK than it is in other EU member states.

If we had been able to take part in this campaign, we could have asked and also answered many questions that are only being asked now.

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'You shouldn't have treated UK like that!' Viktor Orban blames EU and Juncker for Brexit - Daily Express

Since Brexit, (the smaller) whisky and gin distillers from the UK are having a particularly hard time exporting their products to the EU. The reason is very straightforward. Due to Brexit, the excise tax systems are no longer linked, which means all goods are stuck in warehouses awaiting the completion of formalities.

Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad told the story of several UK distilleries. The article reads like one long "I told you so" plead on the impact that Brexit would have on trade flows between the UK and the EU. The misery that the smaller players, in particular, are facing is exactly the one they were warned about in the run-up to 1 January this year. A reality constantly minimised by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Previously, it became clear that you have to be careful when ordering from British webshops.

Especially for goods subject to excise tax, the problems - and the bottles in the warehouses - are piling up. In theory, the international trade of those goods is subject to the suspension of excise tax until the products reach the end-users on the market. When the UK was still part of the EU, it was also part of the internal system that regulated the suspension automatically.

Since Brexit, however, the systems between the UK and the European trade bloc have been disconnected. Consequently, the formalities for the correct processing of these goods have since become a tangled mess for manufacturers and transporters.

In practice, a shipment of gin or whisky for the European market must first be completely processed within the British excise system. Then, a registered consignor - an intermediary authorised to ship such goods under the excise suspension scheme - has to re-register the goods from scratch in the European system. A difficult job, in which errors occur easily. Certainly, because the right knowledge regarding the procedures is not available everywhere.

The big players, who have their logistics in their own hands, manage to still get through this. But the smaller players, who depend on logistics partners, can't get through it. "At the moment, it feels like Europe is on another planet," the Dutch newspaper quotes a distillery from Edinburgh.

Small players do not achieve the volumes to fill a full truck that can be shipped to mainland Europe. This means that a transporter has to go through the entire paperwork for each pallet of cargo. The consequences are obvious: many transporters prefer to ignore goods subject to excise tax, out of fear that one specific pallet will hold up a whole shipment. This applies not only to alcohol but also to fuel and tobacco.

Of course, the frustration of the British distilleries is great. Although, one can't help but notice that there is no sign of panic. No one seems to think that this situation will result in big problems for the distilleries. But, European enthusiasts will notice it will become increasingly difficult to find certain British gins or whiskies in mainland Europe in the near future. "It's easier now to send those bottles to America. It's ridiculous," concludes one of the distillers.

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Brexit brings import of gin and whisky from the UK to a virtual standstill - Retail Detail Europe

WHAT Kevin McKenna terms the narrative of British exceptionalism is indeed under way to deify the disingenuous and indolent Prime Minister as the saviour of the UK and wallow in a parochial, jingoistic illusion of faded grandeur (This rottenness at UKs core is salutary reminder of why Scotland needs out, February 24). The alarming high death toll, cronyistic corruption and deviousness will be marginalised or conveniently forgotten altogether by a compliant media, followed by some Scottish independence bashing and flag venerating in preparation for the actual festival a misnomer if there ever was one of Brexit in 2022.

If there is one single event that will symbolise the deluded and hubristic nature of this Westminster government then look no further than this occasion, which received 29 million of public money at the end of last year and appears still to be taking place despite the economic, social and political carnage caused by the pandemic and the Brexit process. This, as Mr McKenna notes, speaks volumes for the warped priorities and Weltanschauung of Boris Johnsons Conservative administration.

READ MORE: Kevin McKenna:This rottenness at UKs core is salutary reminder of why Scotland needs out

It is fitting that this pseudo-triumphalist, anachronistic sophistry originated with the self-congratulatory Rees-Mogg and was originally rubber-stamped by the hapless Theresa May. The festival of Brexit represents an attempt to persuade the public to evade reality, a tired and cheap conjurers trick to induce mass acceptance of the big lie, Trump-style. To celebrate the division and chaos that Brexit has visited upon the Scottish people is a tired joke, a patronising attempt to play the bread and circuses card with a nation that has outgrown its place in the United Kingdom.

Mr McKenna is correct to identify the current issues within Scotlands ruling party at present but also to reiterate that the alternative to independence is too terrible to contemplate. A socially democratic, inclusive Scotland must continue to be the aim of everyone who craves independence and rejects the chauvinistic and unprincipled immorality of Westminster.

Owen KellyStirling

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Pressing ahead with Festival of Brexit is a denial of reality - The National