Bono, the frontman of U2 and co-founder of the ONE Campaign, visited the European Parliament on 10 October.
“Europe is an amazing romantic idea, that we speak in so many different languages but with one voice,” said Bono during the visit. At the Parliament he met President Antonio Tajani and Parliament’s political group leaders.
People are nervous about increasing nationalism. I am exited about increasing internationalism”.
The One campaign is an international organisation that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
The M26 in Kent is being shut overnight while work is done to see if it can be used as a “parking lot” for lorries, in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat questioned why work began with “no consultation” – despite assurances none was planned.
He has warned the work would “create chaos” in the surrounding area.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling confirmed the work was part of “no-deal” contingency planning but said he thought it would not be needed.
The M26 will be closed overnight, from 2200 BST until 0530 BST until 15 October and again between 19 November and 21 December.
Sections of the M20 in Kent can be closed under Operation Stack, when lorries are forced to queue because of disruption to rail or ferry journeys.
And there have been concerns that a no-deal Brexit could mean lorries getting stuck at the nearby port of Dover because of customs delays.
Mr Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge and Malling, which covers the eastern half of the 10-mile long M26, told the Commons he had been assured that works were not planned as recently as last week – only to find out on Wednesday night that they were going ahead.
He told MPs: “It’s come to a pretty pass when a member finds out that works have begun on a motorway to turn that motorway into a parking lot without consultation either with the local community or with surrounding members.
“The M26 works started last night. I wrote (to Mr Grayling) in April, asking whether or not this would happen.
“I was assured the works were not planned and only yesterday (Wednesday) was it confirmed to me that Highways England had said that is exactly what was planned, despite having told me the reverse a week earlier.”
Mr Grayling replied that he would be happy to meet the MP to discuss the issue, but added: “I do not expect any of the contingencies that we have in place for a no-deal Brexit to be needed because I’m confident we will reach a sensible agreement.”
A spokesman for Highways England said: “As part of wider resilience planning, Highways England has been asked by the Department for Transport to develop plans to utilise the M26 to hold heavy goods vehicles, should further capacity be required in the future.
“We will be undertaking site surveys on the M26 during October leading to the installation of two gates in the central reservation to support the safe management of freight in the future, if needed.”
Operation Stack is currently used on closed sections of the M20 in Kent, where lorries park while waiting to cross the English Channel when traffic is disrupted.
A new strategy, Operation Brock, due to start in early 2019, plans to use a contraflow to keep the roads open when problems arise.
Source: BBC News
British and European Union officials are locked in talks in Brussels over a compromise Brexit deal that could see the U.K. remain temporarily in the EU’s customs regime, people familiar with the negotiations said.
With just a week before a crucial summit of EU leaders that could determine the outcome of Brexit, officials from each side are wrangling over a potential solution to the biggest sticking point: how to keep the Irish border free from customs infrastructure. The U.K. is now unlikely to present any fresh proposals publicly and negotiators have not waited for one, the people said.
U.K. and EU diplomats said that intense negotiating over the next five days could result in a provisional agreement on the issue Monday. However, while there is positive momentum, many issues remain unresolved, they said.
“Decisive progress must be made” before next week’s summit, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said a deal is “within reach” if talks advance in time for next week.
The negotiations are focusing on the so-called “backstop” for the Irish border – an insurance clause to make sure that whatever future trade deal is eventually drawn up between the two sides, no hard border will go up on the island of Ireland. It would only apply as a last resort in case an overarching trade deal doesn’t address the issue.
Under the U.K.’s latest plan, Theresa May’s government would back down on opposition to new regulatory checks on some items moving between the British mainland and Northern Ireland. In exchange, May’s team would need the EU to compromise and allow the whole of the U.K., not just Northern Ireland, to stay in the bloc’s customs regime.
That’s thrown up legal problems that the negotiators say must be resolved if there’s to be a deal. EU officials say only Northern Ireland-specific solutions can be part of the Brexit divorce agreement. U.K.-wide provisions must form part of the wider political declaration on the two side’s future relationship, but that’s not legally binding.
One solution floated by officials is to have only the regulatory checks element — relating to items such as food and livestock moving across the Irish Sea — to be set out in detail in the divorce agreement, officials said. There would be a legally binding reference to the customs arrangement, which would be described in more detail in the declaration on future ties.
The U.K. believes it can argue for different treatment of the two types of checks by saying that regulatory controls are a matter for the quasi-autonomous Northern Ireland assembly, while customs arrangements remain the prerogative of the central government in London.
In London on Tuesday, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab indicated he still favored separating the customs regime from the regulatory checks. When pressed on his stance on the backstop during a question-and-answer session in Parliament, Raab said there mustn’t be a customs border between different parts of the U.K. — but that answer leaves the door open to a regulatory border between Northern Ireland and the British mainland.
The minister also underlined the U.K.’s demand that any backstop agreement to stay in the bloc’s customs rules must be strictly time-limited, something the EU is reluctant to accept. “We have been clear that the backstop would need to be a temporary and finite bridge to the future relationship,” Raab told lawmakers.
In addition to the Irish border issue, negotiators are also working on other outstanding issues in the divorce treaty, including the protection of geographical origin labels on products such as Champagne and Parma ham and a regime to settle disputes arising from the deal, as well as a draft of the declaration on the future relationship.
You can read the article here: Brexit Talks Zero In on U.K. Customs Fix Amid Deal Optimism
Source: Bloomberg
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