Tag: EU

Undiagnosed HIV rising in Eastern Europe, Central Asia: agencies

Terra Daily – November 26, 2020

The EU’s disease control agency and the WHO on Thursday called for better HIV testing to spot cases early following rising undiagnosed cases especially in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia.

Early detection of the virus that causes AIDS mitigates the impact on the patient and prevents further spread.

A report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional office for Europe showed that in 2019, more than 136,000 cases of HIV were diagnosed across the WHO European region, with 80 percent of cases in its eastern parts.

The WHO’s European Region comprises 53 countries and includes Russia and several countries in Central Asia.

The report did however not include data from member states Andorra, Belgium, Monaco, North Macedonia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Roughly half of the European HIV cases were diagnosed at a late stage of infection, “when the immune system has already started to fail,” the agencies said, calling it “a sign that testing strategies in the region are not working properly to diagnose HIV early.”

The authors of the report added that late diagnosis increased the risk of “ill health, death and onward HIV transmission,” and called for new strategies to improve testing.

“Despite the focus on Covid-19 right now, we must not lose sight of other public health issues like HIV. Earlier diagnosis of HIV is an urgent priority,” ECDC director Andrea Ammon said in a statement.

https://www.terradaily.com

UN Announces Biometric Digital ID Wallet

Spiro Skouras – November 18, 2020

Recently, the United Nations had some big announcements that went largely unnoticed, including the rollout of a biometric digital wallet and an announcement that one of its specialized agencies The International Civil Aviation Organization is one step closer to a internationally recognized digital travel credential.

As reported by Biometric Update, this particular UN biometric digital wallet is intended for UN employees and it can be used for data related to human resources, medical status, travel, payroll and pensions.

I hope you see where this is going, every aspect of our lives will be centralized digitally using biometrics and in many cases the blockchain, AI and 5G.

I can’t help but to raise the question, what kind of social controls could this possibly provide the technocrats if people decide not to obey certain restrictions or requirements?

Example: If you didn’t get your latest shot, individuals may face travel restrictions. Or, you may not be able go to work, or your payments may be frozen until you comply.

They may not have to mandate anything if they can ‘encourage’ you to obey.

https://www.activistpost.com

Lagarde Says Her ‘Hunch’ Is That ECB Will Adopt Digital Currency

Alexander Weber – November 12, 2020

(Bloomberg) — European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde signaled that her institution could create a digital currency within years in what would be a dramatic change to the euro zone’s financial sector.

“My hunch is that it will come,” Lagarde said Thursday during a virtual panel discussion hosted by the ECB. “If it’s cheaper, faster, more secure for the users then we should explore it. If it’s going to contribute to a better monetary sovereignty, a better autonomy for the euro area, I think we should explore it.”

The president said it might be two to four years before the project could be launched as it addresses concerns over money laundering, privacy, and the technology involved.

That’s still fast compared to its peers. On the same panel, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey reiterated their caution. Powell said the Fed will “carefully and thoughtfully” review the issue, and Bailey said there’s a “lot of hard work to think through the implications.”

The ECB took a major step last month by launching a public consultation that runs until the middle of January. Policy makers intend to decide around mid-2021 whether to initiate a full-fledged project and prepare for a possible launch.

China is also advance with plans for a central-bank digital currency.

https://www.msn.com

One Week to Agree a Deal? Brexit Talks go to the Wire

Oliver JJ Lane – November 11, 2020

Yet another Brexit deadline has been floated, this time by European negotiators who have called November 19th the absolute deadline for a draft Brexit deal.

Michel Barnier and his team of negotiators returned to London this week for yet another round of Brexit talks, parts of the final approach to Britain finally decoupling from the European Union. Although the UK officially departed the bloc in January 2020, it has remained a non-voting member of the Union in all but name since as part of the so-called transition period which expires at the end of the year.

While several Brexit deadlines have come and gone — the idea becoming less and less meaningful with many involved increasingly assuming that talks will run to the very moment Britain leaves the transition period, and probably beyond — the EU has named another. European Union leaders are due to meet by video conference on November 19th, and Brexit negotiators from Brussels say there has to be an agreement in principle in place by then for it to be ratified by those leaders.

Left-wing newspaper The Guardian reports a Brussels source who said of the November 19th date: “If there isn’t good news by then, then you really have to say that time is up – it just isn’t possible… The leaders will need to see that it is there.”

The content of the Brexit deal will decide whether, in essence, Britain will actually leave the European Union at the end of this year or if it will remain in perpetual limbo.

https://www.breitbart.com

Brexit Talks Back on Less than Week After Boris Told UK to Prepare for Clean Break

Victoria Friedman – October 22, 2020

Negotiations between the UK and EU recommenced on Thursday less than one week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced talks had been a failure and told the nation to prepare for a no-deal, clean-break Brexit.

On Friday, the prime minister’s office had gone as far as telling Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier not to bother coming to London this week to continue trade talks, after Johnson’s deadline of October 15th came and went without significant progress towards signing a free trade agreement. The UK said that negotiations could only recommence if there was a substantial change to Brussels’ position.

For months, the EU has expected the UK to be the only partner in talks to compromise, with the bloc insisting on continued access to Britain’s fishing waters and agreement to anti-competition rules.

There appeared to be movement on the EU’s side, however, when Mr Barnier told the European Parliament on Wednesday: “We will seek the necessary compromises on both sides. In order to do our utmost to reach an agreement, we will do so right up until the last day that it’s possible to do so.”

“We want a deal that will be mutually beneficial to both parties in respect of the autonomy and sovereignty of both sides. A deal reflecting a balanced compromise.

“An agreement is within reach.”

The UK’s negotiator Lord David Frost said in response that “a basis for negotiations with the EU and Michel Barnier has been re-established”.

https://www.breitbart.com

Boris Walks Away! Bombshell Announcement as UK Declares EU Talks Have Failed

Oliver JJ Lane – October 16, 2020

The European Union has shown no intention of accepting entering into a “Canada-style” deal with the United Kingdom in the post-Brexit era and talks have therefore failed, Boris Johnson said on Friday on the second day of a crunch EU summit.

The United Kingdom will now be putting its energy into preparing the country for a full no-deal Brexit on January 31st, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday lunchtime, after two days of high-level talks with European leaders appeared to have failed in producing progress.

The talks had stalled for months over very fundamental differences over what both sides wanted out of the future relationship. While Britain wanted a deal with Europe the same as the one the bloc had already struck with Canada — a former British dominion with similar cultural, political, and legal traditions — which would allow easy trade without the EU exerting political control over the nations’ capital, Brussels had different ideas.

Insisting a Canada-style deal was not possible because the UK was in closer geographical proximity to the European Union, Brussels negotiators instead wanted to retain key controls over Britain, including the right to impose EU laws on Britain and to make decisions over British territorial waters.

Noting despite months of talks nothing consequential had changed in that situation as of today, Mr Johnson said the EU insisting it keep those controls were “completely unacceptable to an independent country”.

https://www.breitbart.com

EU launches legal action against UK over Brexit bill

DW – October 1, 2020

The European Union launched a legal case against the United Kingdom on Thursday for a “breach of the good faith articles in the Withdrawal Agreement.”

The action is due to the UK’s new Internal Market Bill that undercuts the British government’s earlier legal commitments as part of the agreement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

“We had invited our British friends to remove the problematic parts of their draft Internal Market Bill by the end of September,” von der Leyen said. “The deadline lapsed yesterday.”

London has one month in which to respond to the formal letter of complaint submitted by the Commission. The EU’s executive branch will then assess the answer before considering further action.

If the Commission deems the response to be unsatisfactory it then has the option of suing at the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice.

Von der Leyen said it was “the first step in an infringement procedure.” A draft “letter of formal notice” has been finalized, meaning legal action is imminent.

The choice of words “leaves some wiggle room to walk this back,” said DW Brussels correspondent Barbara Wesel. “Negotiations about a trade deal are still going on, but they are not going well… and a trade deal cannot come into force if the Internal Market Bill passes.”

Michael Gove, the UK minister handling Brexit divorce issues, said “differences still remain” between Britain and the EU in trade talks, but that some advances had been made after the ninth round of negotiations between the two parties took place this week.

“We made progress in a number of areas and specialized committees will meet in the coming weeks, in order to conclude further work,” Gove told parliament.

https://www.dw.com

UK-EU Post-Brexit Talks: There’s Just 30% Chance of Clinching Trade Deal, British Media Says

– September 4, 2020

In late July, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier blamed Britain for failing to show a “due level of engagement” in the post-Brexit trade talks between Brussels and London.

Senior UK government officials were quoted by The Times as saying on Friday that there is only 30% to 40% chance that Britain and the EU will conclude a trade agreement before the end of this year.

The officials pointed to the current impasse in the talks over state aid rules-related issues.

The British government has repeatedly refused to comply with state aid rules, insisting that Brexit’s essence stipulates the UK alone deciding its own regulations.

Also adding pessimism over the EU-UK trade deal is UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recent proposal aimed at British fishermen doubling the volume of their catch from the country’s coastal waters.

Brussels responded by rejecting the proposal which it claimed would result in the loss of one in three fishing boats in Europe.

The British officials’ reported prediction comes a few weeks after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier voiced his disappointment and concern about the latest round of post-Brexit talks between Brussels and London, saying that “the British negotiators have not shown any real willingness to move forward”.

Barnier added that in order to get a deal, Britain should come with “clear and constructive proposals” during the next round of talks scheduled for 7 September in London.

At the same time, the EU chief negotiator said that some progress on technical issues had been made during the talks which must be concluded to have the full legal text be ready by October.

The two sides currently remain at odds over the post-Brexit trade talks as Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost blame each other for the stalemate.

https://sputniknews.com

Brexit: ‘Clock is ticking,’ warns EU’s Michel Barnier

DW – August 21, 2020

The EU’s chief post-Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was left ‘disappointed’ at the slow pace of the trade negotiations about the UK’s exit from the European Union, while his UK counterpart David Frost said the EU made talks “unnecessarily difficult.”

“Those who were hoping for negotiations to move swiftly forward this week will have been disappointed,” said Barnier. “Unfortunately, I too am frankly disappointed and concerned.”

“The clock is ticking,” he warned.

Trade discussions between the EU and UK began after Britain officially left the bloc in January.

Both sides are pushing to have a deal in place by the end of a post-Brexit transition period that ends on December 31. The EU said this requires an agreement by October – in two months’ time.

If no deal is struck by then, trading relationships between the two sides will have to use minimum standards set by the World Trade Organization that will see tariffs raised.

“No progress whatsoever” had been made on fisheries, said Barnier. Fair competition rules were also proving to be a sticking point.

“Too often this week it felt as if we were going backwards rather than forwards,” said Barnier.

https://www.dw.com

Too Soon to Say Brexit Will Lead to EU Breakup But It’ll Have Huge Impact on Bloc’s Economy – Expert

Sputnik News – June 25, 2020

According to statements made public in the British press, the European Union is afraid of being left “fighting for its survival” if the UK secures a strong trade deal at the end of the Brexit transition.

The news follows tense negotiations between Britain and the EU over the level of trade relations they will have once the Brexit transition ends in December. Sputnik has spoken to political commentator Keith Rowe to give more insight into the matter.

Sputnik: How significant are these reported fears from Brussels that the EU will be left fighting for its survival if the UK secures a decent trade deal? What do they represent in your eyes?

Keith Rowe: When you say decent trade deal, do you mean a decent trade deal with the EU? Well, I would have thought that’s in the EU’s advantage if we get a decent trade deal. They want to keep us on side. We buy a lot of stuff, of all types, from the EU. It’s in their interests for us to have a deal.

The point is they wanted it to be as strongly biased in their favour as they can get and I think the British position is that we just want a straightforward, Canada++ style trade deal.

That’s in their best interests, I suspect that they won’t be able to agree with that and unless they really knock some heads together very, very quickly and realise that they’ve got to compromise strongly I suspect that, while it might be in their interests to have a good trade deal with the UK, that they won’t achieve one in time for us to leave. They might achieve one after, but they won’t achieve one in time for us to leave.

https://sputniknews.com