DUBLIN, Ireland (AFP) – Britain’s departure from the EU faced two separate legal challenges in Northern Ireland’s High Court Friday. Lawyers for one group lodged an application with the court to challenge London’s decision to abide by the June 23 referendum result and proceed to leave the European Union. In a letter last month, the group had asked British Prime Minister Theresa May to allow votes on the issue in both the British parliament […]
Tag: EU
Crisis deepens as Poland’s top court rejects contested reforms
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) – by Mary SIBIERSKI Poland’s Constitutional Court struck down more government reforms Thursday aimed at clipping its wings in a deepening constitutional crisis that has set Warsaw on a collision course with the EU. Chief Justice Andrzej Rzeplinski said the court found many sections of the July 22 law, adopted by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, “non-compliant with the Polish Constitution”. Pro-democracy protesters gathered outside the court building in central […]
Austria pushes EU to end Turkey membership talks
VIENNA, Austria (AFP) – by Nina LAMPARSKI Austria’s government said Thursday that Turkey is unfit to join the European Union in the wake of the recent post-coup crackdown, calling for the bloc to discuss ending membership talks. Turkey’s longstanding, and recently revived, bid to join the EU has already been hit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s suggestion that he may reintroduce the death penalty after the July 15 attempted putsch. “We have to face reality: […]
Bank of England cuts rates to record low on Brexit
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – by Roland JACKSON The Bank of England on Thursday slashed interest rates to a record low 0.25 percent and announced a vast stimulus package to combat economic fallout from Britain’s looming EU exit. Policymakers voted unanimously to reduce rates by a quarter-point, the bank said in a statement after its latest meeting, cutting borrowing costs for the first time in more than seven years. The BoE also delivered a £170-billion […]
Erdogan tells West ‘mind your own business’ as journalists jailed
by Stuart WILLIAMS Raziye AKKOC ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday told the EU and US to “mind your own business” after the West expressed alarm over the growing crackdown against suspected coup plotters, as a court placed 17 journalists under arrest. Turkey has detained more than 18,000 people over the coup which Ankara blames on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, with the relentless crackdown sparking warnings from Brussels that […]
Terror ‘contagion’ hits a fragile Europe
PARIS, FRANCE (AFP) by Joshua MELVIN The wave of terror attacks afflicting Europe is showing signs of “contagion”, experts warn, at a time when the continent is already in the throes of an existential crisis. In less than two weeks Islamic State group jihadists claimed four bloody assaults in France and Germany that killed nearly 90 people, wounded hundreds and left the continent on edge. Experts say each attack can inspire another, with jihadists egged on further […]
UK’s Osborne to urge U.S. investors to stick with Britain outside EU
(Reuters) British finance minister George Osborne will meet some of Wall Street’s biggest investors in New York on Monday to urge them to stick with Britain despite last month’s vote to leave the European Union, his office said. The vote for Brexit has pushed the pound to 31-year lows against the dollar and many investors have warned that Britain – until this month the world’s fifth-largest economy – faces years of uncertainty over everything […]
Brexit protesters take to streets of London
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Crowds are set to march through London on Saturday in protest against Britain’s vote to leave the EU, which has plunged the government into political turmoil and left the country deeply polarised. Demonstrators plan to gather on Park Lane around 11:00 am (1000 GMT) before making their way towards the Houses of Parliament, in the second show of public anger this week over the shock results of the referendum. “We […]
Cameron’s potential successors push for Brexit delay
by Dario THUBURN LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The favorites to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron pushed Friday for a delay in initiating Britain’s talks to leave the EU as French President Francois Hollande insisted “Brexit” cannot be cancelled or delayed. In further signs of economic fallout from last week’s shock vote, the government also warned it would likely abandon a key promise to achieve a budget surplus by 2020, while no-frills airline EasyJet announced […]
Brexit vote shakes London property market
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) by Patrice NOVOTNY The Brexit vote could cool London’s superheated property market, with some professionals already noting signs of a slowdown, though Gulf investors have signalled their interest is so far undimmed. After a slump in 2008 during the global financial crisis, the sector recovered, first tentatively and then at full pelt, with average prices this year reaching 54 percent higher than their pre-crisis peak. The growth was fuelled by […]
Sanders: Brexit’s message could draw Trump support in US
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The same popular frustration that saw a majority of Britons vote to abandon the EU could send droves of disgruntled Americans into the arms of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders warned on Wednesday. In an opinion piece appearing in the New York Times, Sanders wrote that legions of American voters, alienated by the forces of globalization, are ripe for the message of political retrenchment and economic protectionism espoused by Trump. […]
Britons already feeling pinch from Brexit
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) by Julien MIVIELLE Holidays abroad are already more expensive and supermarket food prices will rise — Britons are feeling the pinch from Brexit, analysts say. Britain voted last week to quit the European Union, despite the government’s warnings of a potential recession and hefty price hikes for consumers. Since the shock vote outcome, perhaps the most dramatic fallout has been the collapse in the pound. The value of sterling has tumbled since […]
