Markus Andrews

Britain has demanded the EU make changes to the Northern Ireland Brexit deal, and on Wednesday afternoon the bloc unveiled its plans.The European Commission proposals would see an 80 per cent reduction in spot checks on food crossing the Irish Sea, and a streamlining of the certificates needed. Restrictions on “chilled meats” such as sausages would also be relaxed, customs paperwork on manufactured goods halved, and restrictions on moving medicines across the Irish Sea would be done away with.But the plans crucially ignore UK demands for the European Court of Justice to be removed from the equation, which Brexit minister Lord Frost has said is a red line.And the Commission said the light-touch approach would only work if the UK follows through on its earlier commitments to build new border control posts and give Brussels real-time access to trade data.Agri-foodsThe EU has offered to reduce checks on so-called agri-foods crossing the Irish Sea by 80 per cent. This would see a reduction in identity checks on lorry drivers and invasive vehicle searches.Crucially there would also be a reduction in the number of certificates required for lorries carrying a mixed load of different goods.Currently, lorries with lots of different products onboard require a vet-approved export-health certificate for each different product line on the vehicle.Instead of as many as 100 certificates, each lorry would only need one.The EU said products deemed “not at risk” of illegally entering the EU would not be subject to customs duties.So-called “trusted trader schemes” would also be expanded to a wider number of businesses.Together the bloc said these changes would halve the volume of paperwork required on goods crossing the Irish Sea. While the “not at risk” exemptions already exist, they previously only applied to Northern Ireland-based manufacturers with a low turnover. It would become a general exemption. Under the plans, larger NI manufacturers and Great Britain based suppliers would be covered. The EU said it would pass legislation to keep the trade in medicines flowing between Great Britain and Northern IrelandUnder the original plans signed by Boris Johnson, supply chains would have been severely disrupted.The original plans were never applied after the UK extended a grace period before implementation.StakeholdersThe EU also said it wants to make sure it is responsive to the views of people and business on the ground in Northern Ireland. It said it would create structured groups to establish a forum for discussion on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. According to the bloc’s outlines, relevant “stakeholders” such as trade associations could be invited to meetings of the “joint committee” that oversees the functioning of the deal.And the bloc has also suggested involving the Stormont Assembly in the joint UK-EU parliamentary assembly, which is in the process of being established to oversee UK-EU relations.It also said it would set up a website with clearer information about how EU legislation applies to Northern Ireland. More

The EU has refused to engage with a demand by the UK government to take the European Court of Justice out of the Northern Ireland Brexit deal.British minister Lord Frost had demanded changes to the protocol which would have stopped the bloc’s top court having the final say over disputes – despite signing up to exactly that just two years ago.But the change was notably absent from proposals to overhaul the Northern Ireland deal published by the EU on Wednesday evening. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s Brexit lead told reporters: “It’s very clear that we cannot have access to the single market without the supervision of the European Court of Justice.”Under the deal Northern Ireland gets special access to EU markets in order to keep the brother with the Republic of Ireland open. But the protocol, which was the subject of intense negotiations over a period of years, has been causing problems for trade with Great Britain over the Irish Sea, and the UK has demanded changes to it.Mr Sefcovic said the EU had produced a “robust package of creative, practical solutions designed to help Northern Ireland deal with the consequences of Brexit” and revealed he had invited Lord Frost to lunch on Friday to discuss them.But he refused to drawn on the UK declaration that the jurisdiction of the court was a red line, stating: “I think our aim today is to stay on positive a note, to stay on the benefits which this package, and which of the dual market access is offering to Northern Ireland.“I believe that will be presented today is such an appealing picture that we will really focus all our constructive and creative energy on how to make this as good as possible for the people and businesses in Northern Ireland. So I want to focus on that positive agenda, I want to focus on the solutions, and I hope that Lord frost will join me in that.”Mr Sefcovic said that in all discussions with people in Northern Ireland about the protocol the issue the ECJ had been raised just once. The EU’s Brexit chief, who took over the role after Michel Barnier retired, said the bloc had “turned our rules upside down and inside out” to find new solutions.The European Commission proposals unveil on Wednesday afternoon would see a 80 per cent reduction in spot checks on food crossing the Irish Sea, and a streamlining of the certificates lorry drivers must present from as many as a hundred to just one. Restrictions on “chilled meats” such as sausages would also be relaxed, customs paperwork on manufactured goods halved, and restrictions on moving medicines across the Irish Sea would be done away with.And the Commission says the light-touch approach will only work if the UK follows through on its earlier commitments to build new border control posts and give Brussels real-time access to trade data.Responding to the proposals, a UK government spokesperson said: “The EU have now published their proposals in response to those in our Command Paper. We are studying the detail and will of course look at them seriously and constructively. “The next step should be intensive talks on both our sets of proposals, rapidly conducted, to determine whether there is common ground to find a solution.“Significant changes which tackle the fundamental issues at the heart of the Protocol, including governance, must be made if we are to agree a durable settlement which commands support in Northern Ireland.“We need to find a solution which all sides can get behind for the future, which safeguards the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, and which puts the UK-EU relationship on a stronger footing. We are ready to work hard with this in mind.” More

Boris Johnson’s government should demand that banks and major companies in the UK produce their own climate transition plans, Labour has said.The opposition party is pushing for tighter regulation on big business to make sure their plans align with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.Labour said the prime minister should “mandate” Britain’s financial institutions and its FTSE100 companies to publish their carbon footprint and adopt a credible plan to reduce emissions.In a speech ahead of next month’s Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said top companies could make a “profound difference” in the push for net zero emissions.“Many of our leading financial institutions and businesses have been ahead of government when it comes to climate action,” said the senior Labour MP. “But we need all to meet the standards of the best.”Miliband added: “Furthermore, we should be asking in Glasgow that all other major economies follow suit. This proposal would be a game-changer in the fight against climate breakdown, setting a global standard and making the UK the green finance capital of the world.”The investments of firms and financial institutions based in the City of London account for around15 per cent of global emissions, Labour said. The opposition claimed regulation could be used to mobilise trillions of pounds in pursuit of the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.Miliband also used Wednesday’s speech to attack Johnson’s leadership – urging him to “get off the sun lounger and start being a statesman” to prevent Cop26 becoming a failure.The shadow minister also accused the Conservative government of a “decade of inaction” which has stalled progress on renewable energy and has led to Britain’s current fuel crisis.Pointing to Labour’s commitment to invest an extra £28bn every year until 2030 to tackle the climate crisis, he accused the chancellor Rishi Sunak of “positioning himself as the anti-green chancellor” by refusing to commit big enough sums to climate transition plans.He condemned the Tory government for cutting its aid budget at a time when trust between developing and developed countries is key. “The government have been at best bystanders and at worst, contributors to global inaction,” he argued.It comes as Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon used a TED talk to say the country must “be careful” not to leave communities behind as it transitions away from oil and gas.The SNP leader again refused to voice opposition to the Cambo oil field development proposed near Shetland fiercely opposed by climate activists.Ms Sturgeon stressed the supply of oil and gas cannot be turned off in the short term because that may lead to a spike in imports and economic problems caused by mass lay-offs.But she also repeated calls for licences to extract oil and gas from the North Sea to be reassessed by the UK government given the current threat of climate change.“We’ve got to be careful that we don’t leave people and communities behind in that transition,” the first minister said. “We’ve got to be careful we don’t switch domestic production to imports of oil and gas – that would be counter-productive.” More

The number of renters on universal credit in rent arrears increased by 70 per cent in the space of six months earlier in 2021, new figures shows, leading to renewed calls to reinstate the benefit top-up.It comes after Boris Johnson pressed ahead with the decision to cut the universal credit uplift — worth over £1,000 a year for low income families — last week, despite widespread opposition from anti-poverty campaigners.Senior Conservatives, including former cabinet ministers, and opposition MPs had lobbied the government to maintain the payments, which were increased at the onset of the Covid pandemic to help struggling families.Using government figures, Crisis said that over 190,000 low-income renters in receipt of universal credit in England were at least two or more months behind on rent between April-May 2021 — the latest period covered by the data.The homelessness charity added that this represented a 70 per cent increase on the previous figures (114,000) from November-December 2020, warning they were “far worse than we feared”.The organisation also highlighted fears over spiralling energy costs, food prices and concerns over inflation that will “heighten fears that struggling households will be pushed further into debt and poverty”.Chief executive of Crisis, Jon Sparkes, said the new figures “must act as a wake-up call to government to act now if we are to pull hundreds of thousands of renters back from the brink of homelessness.”“The cold reality of the universal credit cut is forcing people into impossible decisions about whether to turn on the heating, put food on the table for their children or pay the rent,” he added.“How do we expect to level up the country when families can’t even afford the basic necessities? There is still time to fix this.“It’s vital that the government use the upcoming spending review to reverse this decision and reinstate the £20 lifeline so we can prevent struggling families from losing their homes this winter. Anything short of this could be catastrophic”.The remarks came as the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) also highlighted the data, claiming that the proportion of private renters in arrears in England had doubled during the pandemic to around 780,000.The organisation said that between April and May 2021, seven per cent of private renters were in arrears — up from three per cent in 2019/2020 — while an extra nine per cent indicated they were expected to fall behind with rent payments over the next 12 months.Urging the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to address the crisis, chief executive of the NRLA Ben Beadle said: “Landlords are being put in a difficult position. They can either shoulder rent debts they cannot afford or seek to repossess properties as a final resort.“Without a targeted package of support to pay off Covid debts, many tenants run the risk of losing their homes needlessly. They also face the possibility that their credit scores will be damaged, making it more difficult to access new housing in the future.” More

Norway’s prime minister-designate on Wednesday presented his proposal for a two-party, center-left minority government that is pledging to pursue “a fair climate policy that cuts emissions and creates jobs.”Jonas Gahr Stoere, the leader of Norway’s center-left Labor Party, unveiled his plans for a new Cabinet that is to take office this week after Norway s left-leaning bloc won last month’s parliamentary election. The 61-year-old Gahr Stoere, who was formally asked by King Harald V to form a government on Tuesday, is poised to become prime minister of a government that includes the eurosceptic Center Party. He will take over Thursday from the Conservative Party’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg who was ousted in the Sept. 13 election after two four-year terms. Gahr Stoere and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Center Party that is Norway’s third largest, unveiled a 83-page policy program for 2021-2025 where climate and the environment are among key areas. “The climate crisis is the biggest challenge of our time,” the Labor Party said. “Climate and nature must be a framework around all politics. Norway’s ambitious climate goals commit the entire government and all parts of society.”Picks for ministerial portfolios are to be made public Thursday but Slagsvold Vedum is widely expected to become Norway’s next finance minister. In the September vote, the Labor Party and its two left-leaning allies — the Socialist Left and the Center Party — grabbed 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the center-right government of Erna Solberg got 68. The last seat was taken by a northern Norway health-focused protest party, Pasientfokus. The Labor Party — the largest party in non-European Union member Norway — won the election with 26.3% of the vote while the Center Party finished third with 20.4%. Gahr Stoere wanted to form a majority government with all three left-leaning parties but failed to do so after talks also involving the Socialist Left collapsed due to disagreements on climate policy, in particular Norway’s oil industry, and taxation.The oil industry is Scandinavian nation’s biggest industry and is responsible for over 40% of exports and directly employs more than 5% of the workforce. North Sea oil and gas has helped make Norway one of the world’s wealthiest countries. The new center-left Cabinet would continue oil exploration efforts and “permits will continue to be granted to search for oil and gas in new areas,” the government program said. Most of the country’s oil and gas still comes from mature areas in the North Sea, but most of the untapped reserves are in the Barents Sea, above the Arctic Circle — a red line for environmentalists.On the other hand, Norwegians are among the most climate-conscious consumers in the world, with most new car purchases now being electric.___Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change. More

Rail freight operators are having to mothball their electric locomotives and switch back to diesel trains, which are slower and cause more pollution, because of the unfolding energy crisis.The logistics firms say a surge in wholesale energy prices and an increase in the track access charges they pay has made the low-carbon trains uneconomical to operate.The startling revelation comes just two weeks before the UK is due to host the Cop26 climate summit, and is bad news for decarbonisation plans – which rely on electrification.The Rail Freight Group, the industry body that covers the sector, said a tripling of electricity costs had meant that “some operators have had to take the regrettable decision to temporarily move back to diesel locomotives”.Noting that rail freight still emitted over three-quarters less carbon than road haulage even when using diesel locomotives, a spokesperson for the group said: “The current significant increase in the wholesale cost of electricity for haulage means that some operators have had to take the regrettable decision to temporarily move back to diesel locomotives. “A 200 per cent increase in electricity costs for each train cannot be absorbed by the operators, or customers, and so necessary action is being taken to ensure that trains can continue to operate delivering vital goods across the country.“Our members are assuring us that this is a temporary measure and will be kept under constant review.”Freightliner, which is one of the ‘big four’ rail freight companies and is among those to have switched back to diesel, described the move as a “difficult decision” and confirmed it had temporarily halted electric services to stay “cost effective”. “As a result of soaring prices on the UK’s wholesale electricity market, the price Network Rail charges us to operate electric train services has increased by more than 210 per cent between September and October,” Freightliner said in a statement. “This unprecedented rise in electricity charges has resulted in a sharp increase in the cost of operating electric freight services. “As a result, Freightliner has taken the difficult decision to temporarily replace electric freight services with diesel-hauled services, in order to maintain a cost-effective option for transporting vital goods and supplies across the UK.”At the weekend, Energy UK chief executive Emma Pinchbeck said the industry was “worried” about some of its commercial customers and that the consequences of rising prices were “unclear”.A spokesperson for Network Rail, the government-owned company that manages rail infrastructure in Great Britain, said: “Electricity costs for Network Rail and passenger operators were negotiated some time ago and are fixed for this year and most of next. “A few operators, however, are subject to the current market wholesale price of electricity, which Network Rail passes on directly at cost. Despite this, rail remains the most carbon-efficient means of moving large quantities of both freight and people around the country.”Energy prices have surged in the UK because of a combination of factors, including surging demand as the Covid pandemic abates, limited supply from Russia, and a high reliance on gas in the UK without adequate buffer storage. More

Downing Street always intended to “ditch” parts of the Brexit deal and Boris Johnson “never had a scoobydoo” what the agreement actually meant, his former right-hand man Dominic Cummings has claimed, as the government urges Brussels to rewrite the agreement.Following months of discontent with the Northern Ireland protocol, Brexit minister Lord Frost has threatened to unilaterally suspend the mechanism, negotiated just two years ago as part of the Brexit deal, unless the EU agrees to effectively tear it up and replace it.Insisting that “we always sign treaties in good faith and intend to implement them”, Lord Frost suggested on Tuesday that it would be a “historic misjudgement” for Brussels not to renegotiate the protocol governing trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.But he was contradicted by the prime minister’s now-departed chief political aide, who claimed to have always planned to “ditch bits [of the deal] we didn’t like after whacking” former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 general election.Mr Cummings’ comments – which came as the EU pledged “very far-reaching” proposals to fix the situation – were described as “very alarming” by Ireland’s deputy premier, Leo Varadkar, who warned political leaders not to enter any agreements with the UK Government until they are “confident that they keep their promises”.The former Vote Leave campaigner who masterminded Mr Johnson’s Brexit strategy during his first 16 months in Downing Street has made several explosive claims about the prime minister since he was reportedly told to “never return” to No10 following a vicious power struggle.As the UK escalated its brinkmanship over the Brexit deal on Tuesday, Mr Cummings described a situation in which “we took over a party” on around 10 per cent in the polls amid the “worst constitutional crisis in [a] century” and a “totally f*****g negotiating situation”, with much of the “deep state” angling for “Brexit in name only” or a second referendum. “So we wriggled [through] with best option we [could] and intended to get [Mr Johnson] to ditch bits we didn’t like after whacking Corbyn. We prioritised,” he said on Twitter, in an apparent reference to the Brexit deal.As the UK seeks to forge new global partnerships, Mr Cummings claimed that, “for all the cant” about international law, countries “break it every week”, adding: “The idea it’s the epitome of morality is low grade student politics pushed by lawyers/officials to constrain politics they oppose.”Describing lawyers as “hired help, not the masters”, Mr Cummings said that while countries should generally stick to treaties, they should “of course” sometimes break them, “just like the EU, US, China and every other state does”.He said his claims did not mean the prime minister lied during the 2019 general election, when he repeatedly insisted there would be “no border down the Irish Sea”.Instead, Mr Johnson “never had a scoobydoo what the deal he signed meant”, did not understand what leaving the Customs Union meant until the eleventh-hour of trade deal negotiations in November 2020, and claimed in January that year he would have “never signed” the Brexit withdrawal agreement “if I’d understood it”, Mr Cummings alleged.His intervention came as a report in The Guardian suggested the EU was preparing to offer to significantly reduce border checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland in an attempt to break the political deadlock.European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic had previously said the proposals would be “very far-reaching”, and was expected to front a press conference on Wednesday.However, in the wake of Mr Cummings’ comments, Ireland’s Tanaiste warned that the UK could be acting “in bad faith” over the Northern Ireland protocol.“I saw those comments; I hope Dominic Cummings is speaking for himself and not for the British Government,” Leo Varadkar told RTE Morning Ireland. “But those comments are very alarming because that would indicate that this is a government, an administration, that acted in bad faith and that message needs to be heard around the world. If the British Government doesn’t honour its agreements, it doesn’t adhere to treaties it signs, that must apply to everyone else too.“At the moment they’re going around the world, they’re trying to negotiate new trade agreements … Surely the message must go out to all countries around the world that this is a British Government that doesn’t necessarily keep its word and doesn’t necessarily honour the agreements it makes.“And you shouldn’t make any agreements with them until such time as you’re confident that they keep their promises, and honour things, for example, like the protocol.”In an apparent response on Wednesday morning, Mr Cummings dismissed talk of acting in “good faith” as a “babble of student politics from SW1 insiders infantilised by EU membership”. He added: “It was international diplomacy vs people trying to cut our balls off. Of course there wasn’t ‘good faith’.”The previous day, Lord Frost had risked inflaming tensions as he accused Brussels of being “disrespectful” to Britain, claiming the bloc was attempting to “encourage UK political forces to reverse the referendum result or least keep us closely aligned with the EU”.Speaking in Lisbon as he presented the European Commission with a proposed “new legal text” to replace the protocol, Lord Frost said: “For the EU now to say that the protocol – drawn up in extreme haste in a time of great uncertainty – can never be improved upon, when it is so self-evidently causing such significant problems, would be a historic misjudgement.” More

Boris Johnson’s government missed its 2020 fuel poverty target and is now at “high risk” of failing to meet its goals for 2025 as well, according to its own group of advisers.The Committee on Fuel Poverty condemned the “unacceptable” failure of government to achieve its aim of making sure all fuel-poor homes had an energy efficiency rating of E or higher by last year.In a scathing report published on Wednesday, the committee of experts said the government had failed “despite schemes and sufficient funding being able to meet it”.The committee, set up to advise ministers on tackling fuel poverty, also criticised the failure to help the poorest Britons make their homes energy efficient.The report found that only 15 per cent of funding to improve energy efficiency and help with fuel bills actually went to households in fuel poverty – with most of the help going to those on “higher incomes”.The report said: “Government failed to apply its own fuel poverty guiding principle to target available funds on assisting those in the deepest levels of fuel poverty to improve the energy efficiency levels of their homes and assist them to pay their fuel bills.”It added: “Instead, assistance was targeted (and continues to be targeted) predominantly on higher income households.”Only 55 per cent of the 293,000 fuel-poor homes with ratings of G or F in 2015 had been upgraded to E or higher by 2020, the report found.The warning comes as concerns about a “winter of discontent” ahead as energy bills continues to mount thanks to spiralling wholesale gas prices.Regulator Ofgem raised its energy price cap by 12 per cent this month and analysts fear the cap could rise again by nearly 30 per cent next April. This would mean bills rising by as much as £400 – prompting fears more people could be pushed into fuel poverty.It follows accusations that the government has worsened the heating bill crisis by ending a successful home insulation programme.The Green Homes Grant offered households vouchers to go towards the cost of insulation – but it was scrapped in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s last budget and replaced with a new scheme that gave funding to councils to distribute the cash.Many of the problems highlighted in Wednesday’s Committee on Fuel Poverty report were originally raised in the advisory body’s first annual report in 2016.The previous report found that only 10 per cent of funding for fuel poverty schemes actually went to households in fuel poverty, while the government did not know the address of the majority of the 3.2 million fuel poor households.The 2021 report found the government still did not have this information, saying: “Although the number of fuel poor households can be estimated … the addresses of these households are unknown and hence it is difficult to target assistance to them.”The committee also highlighted concerns that the move to net-zero could increase fuel bills in the short term, meaning more support would be necessary, but objected to the diversion of money for energy efficiency into decarbonisation projects.A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the government welcomed the Committee on Fuel Poverty’s report.“The energy price cap is shielding millions of customers from rising global gas prices, and we’ve launched an extra £500m Household Support Fund for those most in need in addition to other schemes for the most vulnerable,” the spokesperson said.“But we want to go further and faster, ensuring nobody goes cold in their own home. That is why we are investing £1.3bn to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes helping to lift more low-income families out of fuel poverty.” More