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LONDON (AP) Irelands prime minister warned Britain on Monday that Brexit is far from finished -- and the European Union will have the stronger hand in upcoming negotiations on future relations between the two sides.

Leo Varadkar said we're only at halftime on Brexit, as the blocs chief Brexit negotiator visited Dublin in a show of solidarity, five days before the U.K. is due to leave the EU .

Britain's exit on Friday, which will be the first time a nation has left the bloc, will be followed by an 11-month transition period in which Britain will continue to follow EU rules while the two sides work out new deals on trade, security and other areas.

The European Union is a union of 27 member states. The U.K. is only one country, Varadkar told the BBC before meeting EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. And we have a population and a market of 450 million people. The U.K., it's about 60 (million). So if these were two teams up against each other playing football, who do you think has the stronger team?

Speaking after the meeting, Varadkar added that the negotiations didnt need to be a contest, and could end in a mutually beneficial deal.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is adamant that he wont agree to extend the Brexit transition beyond the end of 2020, even if a deal has not been struck.

Varadkar, however, said it would be difficult to secure a comprehensive agreement in time and there was a chance a deal might need to be approved by parliaments in all 27 EU countries -- any of which could hold it up.

We need to get down to business very quickly trying to get that trade deal, which is absolutely essential for the Irish economy, as well as, of course, for Britain's as well, said Varadkar, who is battling to retain his job in an election on Feb. 8.

Ireland is the only EU country to share a land border with the U.K., and Britain is one of Irelands top trading partners.

Britain and the EU are committed to striking a wide-ranging free trade agreement but appear to be on a collision course. The U.K. government says it will not agree to follow an EU rule book in return for unfettered trade; the bloc insists there can be no trade deal unless Britain agrees to a level playing field and does not undercut EU regulations.

Negotiations are not due to begin in earnest until March, when EU leaders sign off on a mandate for the talks drawn up by Barnier.

Barnier said that if no agreement was reached by the end of the year it "cannot be business as usual.

"We are to face a risk of a cliff edge, in particular for trade," he said.

The U.K. government says Brexit will allow Britain to forge new trade deals around the world, though most economists doubt these will make up for lost commerce with the EU, which currently accounts for almost half of U.K. trade.

In a speech at Queen's University in Belfast, Barnier said that Brexit would inevitably have negative consequences for both sides.

Whatever agreement we reach on our future relationship, Brexit will always be a matter of damage limitation, he said.

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Follow APs full coverage of Brexit and British politics at https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

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Irish leader says EU will have upper hand in UK trade talks - Yahoo Finance

There will be little official pageantry to mark Britains departure from the European Union at 11pm on Friday. A clock counting down the last hour will be projected on to No 10 Downing Street, and Nigel Farage will host a celebration in Parliament Square where flagpoles will fly union jacks.

But there will be nothing like the torchlight procession that marked the august occasion on 1 January 1973 when the prime minister Edward Heath was joined in Brussels by his predecessors Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home and a chorus of leaders from across the political divide to witness the accession of the UK into the European Economic Community.

Friday will mark the start of what is likely to be an uphill battle to get a trade deal done by the end of the year, not to mention all the non-trade issues that must also be resolved including security and intelligence cooperation, fisheries, data, education and research collaboration.

Yes. Although everyday life will remain the same and the UK will remain in the single market and the customs union until the end of the year as part of transition arrangements, the withdrawal agreement will be a legally binding international treaty. It carries sanctions for any backsliding or half measures, as Michel Barniers adviser Stefaan de Rynck pointed out last week in London.

We know little of the plans for the negotiations, and parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit has been restricted. The House of Lords EU committee has invited but failed to get Stephen Barclay to appear to explain the next stages, sources say.

The UK is five days away from entering into a highly complex and potentially extensive set of negotiations with the EU, and from entering into quite an elaborate joint institutional architecture with the EU to manage the withdrawal agreement. But we know little in detail about how either of these are going to work on the UK side, in terms of institutions and process, says Brigid Fowler, a senior researcher with the Hansard Society.

While business has been clamouring for the government to reveal its Brexit vision beyond the joint aspiration of a tariff-free, quota-free deal, little is known about Boris Johnsons specific goals.

Johnson is doing everything he can to expunge the word Brexit from the British lexicon. He has already reduced parliamentary scrutiny of the next phase, and his government has given only clues as to what the goals and red lines in negotiations will be.

Negotiating mandates setting out wishlists and red lines are usually published by both sides before they enter into trade talks. Until Sunday, when the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, told the BBCs Andrew Marr that they would be published, it had not been clear that Johnson would do so at all.

The prime minister is expected to give further clues in a keynote speech in the next fortnight, but parliaments involvement in approving the negotiating mandate was removed from the Brexit bill.

Essentially, the government seems to be planning to rely on normal mechanisms for ministerial accountability to parliament. These put the government in control of what information is made public and when, says Fowler.

A reshuffle is expected in early February and some departments are expected to be axed. Barclays Brexit department will close on Friday and there could be changes to the function of the Treasury, the Department for International Trade, the Foreign Office, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Home Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Michael Gove, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, continues to head a special Exiting the EU operation committee, known as XO, and is expected to continue to have a key role in the next phase.

HMRC will be one of the key cogs in the Brexit chain as work must start urgently on the complex arrangements for Northern Ireland that will affect all businesses trading on both sides of the Irish Sea. Expect an early clash between the EU and Johnson, who has repeatedly claimed there will be no checks on goods, in contradiction of the withdrawal agreement.

New border systems will be needed for the rest of the UK, and the EU and HMRC will be frustrated in designing them until the shape of the deal is known, possibly not until the summer. HMRC is short of key personnel and recently advertised for a deputy director to take charge of EU exit, who will be responsible for providing the strategic direction for the project, delivering all the operational, communications and business changes needed in readiness for the UKs exit.

A former head of HMRC has said it could take five years to get the sort of IT system proposed for Northern Ireland up and running.

Expect plenty of sabre-rattling on both sides, but negotiations are unlikely to begin before March. The European commission kicked off its 30-stage process in agreeing its negotiating goals before Christmas and these are expected to be signed off by member states at a meeting on 25 February.

David Frost, who replaced Oliver Robbins as the chief negotiator, is expected to lead a team of about 30 calling on expert knowledge from civil servants and trade experts. Some have suggested the government should hire as many as possible from the Canadian team that sealed Canadas new deal with the EU.

Under the withdrawal agreement, a joint committee of EU and UK representatives to oversee implementation of the treaty can sit from 1 February.

While the powers of the committee are known, we know very little else. The appointments process, the size of the committee and how often it will meet has yet to be disclosed. One senior source said the committee would not be as influential as speculated.

This remains the single most contentious part of the Brexit deal because of the checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea. De Rynck said last week that the EU and the UK would have to be very disciplined if they were to get a new system for trading in Northern Ireland ready for 31 December.

Brussels and Irish political leaders are already alarmed by Johnsons repeated declarations that there will be no checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, even though some of these will be mandatory.

Helen McEntee, Irelands minister for European affairs contradicted him directly on Sunday telling Sky Newss Sophy Ridge: There will be no checks on the island of Ireland, weve been very clear on this.

Underneath the joint committee will be a specialised committee and working advisory group to establish the Northern Ireland protocol.

Northern Ireland businesses have urged the government to set up the working group urgently so that the detail of the checks can be determined quickly.

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What happens on Brexit day and what comes next? - The Guardian

Five EU countries have been identified as not reaching the 50 per cent threshold in the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The study, published by the NGO Transparency International, analysed 180 countries, and when it comes to the EU, the misuse of its funds is still a big issue.

The perceptions index was based in answers from 12 independent institutions specialised in governance and business climate, with Hungary, Poland, Romania, Croatia and Greece falling below the 50 per cent mark.

Michiel van Hulten, Director of Transparency International EU told Euronews: "There is a lot of fraud committed with EU funds; involving EU funds, but it has been very difficult to tackle this effectively and one of the reasons is that all member states take a different approach.

"By having a single European Public Prosecutor that will be addressing and tackling these issues, I think we can be confident that it will be easier to take on these cases."

An associated report confirmed that while most post-communist EU member-states are not addressing the problem effectively, western states also have problems. The UK and France were among the four countries that lost at least three points on the index since last year.

In contrast, Spain improved by four points and Greece by three on the index, although Greece is still in the bottom half of the global ratings.

Transparency International focused this year's report on the risks of private entities financing political parties.

Malta was highlighted as a country to watch closely since it dropped six points since 2015, with the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia remaining unsolved.

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Report indicates corruption is still a major issue in the European Union - Yahoo Movies UK

PUBLISHED: 12:28 27 January 2020 | UPDATED: 12:28 27 January 2020

Heads of state and government attend a meeting at the European Council headquarter in Brussels. (JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Leo Varadkar, who reiterated his concerns about being able to strike a deal by December 31, said the UK would be welcomed back into the EU if it ever wanted to return.

"On Friday, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union, we'll say goodbye to an old friend embarking on an adventure," he said.

"We hope it works out for them. But if it does not, there will always be a seat kept for them at the table."

Ahead of a meeting EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Dublin, the Taoiseach told the BBC the EU would enter talks in a stronger position than the UK.

"The European Union is a union of 27 member states. The UK is only one country. And we have a population and a market of 450 million people," he said.

"The UK, it's about 60 (million). So if these were two teams up against each other playing football, who do you think has the stronger team?"

But Varadkar also later told reporters that the Brexit talks does not have to be a competition with winners and losers.

He said both sides could work together to strike a mutually beneficial deal.

"Ireland will be friends to the United Kingdom into the future, we want to be friends with our nearest neighbour," he replied.

"But there should be no doubt that we are on 'Team EU', we are part of the 27 and maintain solidarity with all the member states and European institutions that showed solidarity with us over the past two or three years.

"I think if you see this as a contest, the European Union is in a very strong position - we're 27 countries, we have a population of 450 million people and the single market is the largest economy in the world.

"But I don't think we have to see it as a contest. There is a possibility for us to work together with the United Kingdom over the next few months and come to a future relationship and a trade agreement that's mutually beneficial, and that's the spirit in which we will be entering these talks."

Boris Johnson has repeatedly ruled out requesting an extension to the transition period, during which the UK abides by EU rules, to facilitate further talks.

Michel Barnier said if no agreement was reached by the end of the year it "cannot be business as usual".

"We are to face a risk of a cliff edge, in particular for trade," he added.

"We will use this time maintaining our line, protecting our interests, our principles and always willing to build the strong and ambitious partnership.

"The UK is there as a friend and an ally for our common security and economic partners."

The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.

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There will always be a seat for the UK at the EU, says Irish PM - The New European

The European Commission on Monday distanced itself from the six draft resolutions moved at the European Parliament by its members criticising the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of India as well as the move initiated by the Modi government in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5.

The resolutions introduced by the Members of European Parliament cast a shadow over Modis proposed meeting with Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, presidents of the European Commission and European Council respectively, on March 13.

The European Commission (EC) resorted to damage control measures and underlined that the views expressed by the European Parliament did not represent the official position of European Union (EU).

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla wrote to the European Parliament president, saying the legislative wing of the EU should not pass judgement on a law enacted by the Indian Parliament.

The European Parliament is the legislative wing of the EU. The European Commission, on the other hand, is the executive wing of the bloc that comprises 28 nations, including United Kingdom, which is set to exit the union on January 31 next.

The six groups in European Parliament comprising 626 of the 751 members of the EU legislature moved the draft resolutions, criticising Indias CAA.

The draft resolutions raised the hackles in New Delhi with sources pointing out that CAAs enactment was an entirely internal matter.

Every society that fashions a pathway to naturalisation contemplates both a context and criteria. This is not discrimination. In fact, European societies have followed the same approach, a source in New Delhi said.

We hope the sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of facts before they proceed further. As fellow democracies, the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world.

An EU spokesperson, however, said that the draft resolutions contained only the texts tabled by various political groups in European Parliament. India is a key partner for the EU to address global challenges and to jointly promote the rules-based multilateral order, Virgine Battu-Henriksson, EU spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said. The opinion expressed by the European Parliament or its members do not represent the official position of the European Union.

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EU executive wing distances itself from draft resolutions moved against India's CAA in European Parliament - Deccan Herald