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A Nato Global Hawk drone. The EUs military ambitions have often outpaced what individual member states can agree. Photograph: Rainer Jensen/EPA

The European Union is mulling a 1bn (870m) defence fund, as Britains impending departure raises hopes of deeper military cooperation in the bloc. The EUs executive arm will outline plans on Wednesday for a fund to pool research into new military technology, such as drones, air-to-air refuelling planes and cyber-defence systems.

In an implicit challenge to Britain as it heads for the EU exit, the European commission will say that no single EU country not even the largest can afford to develop the most costly military equipment alone. The development of a new generation of many major defence systems is today beyond the reach of a single EU member state, states a draft paper seen by the Guardian. More Europe in defence and security is clearly needed.

If agreed by member states, it would be the first significant use of the EU budget for defence, although EU spending is likely to remain dominated by farm payments, road, rail and other infrastructure projects.

Sources in Brussels think the defence fund could rise to 1bn after 2021, following an initial 250m outlay in 2020 to kickstart new research projects. The figures have not been finalised and would have to be agreed by EU member states. Even if agreed, the defence fund would be a fraction of the EU budget worth 155bn in 2016 with almost three-quarters of spending earmarked for farmers and economic aid projects for poorer regions.

The commission will publish the plans on Wednesday, with a detailed budget proposal to follow in 2018.

The ideas will feed into a tough debate about the EUs post-Brexit budget. Battle lines are already being drawn over how to fill the 10bn hole that will be left by the UK, with net payers, such as Sweden, insisting they will not stump up more money.

Despite inevitable wrangles over money, European leaders think defence can help revitalise the 60-year-old European project, after years of battling existential crises, from migration to Brexit. But plans for deeper military cooperation were drawn up long before Britains decision to leave, as a response to war and instability on the EUs eastern and southern fringes.

While European Nato countries have been inching up defence spending, Brussels is concerned that Europe gets less bang for its buck, because of overlaps and duplication. Europe has 178 different weapons systems, compared with 30 in the US, which increases equipment costs. One standard Nato helicopter was developed in 23 different versions to accommodate differing national specifications.

Meanwhile, costs are escalating. The Eurofighter Typhoon jet cost 20bn alone in research and development, compared with total R&D spending of 9bn in the EU in 2014. The fighter jet, a joint project between Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, was massively over budget and years behind schedule.

The EUs military ambitions have often outpaced what individual member states can agree. Since 2007, the EU has been able to send rapid-reaction forces of 1,500 soldiers known as battlegroups to stabilise foreign crises, but has never done so.

One senior EU diplomat recently described battlegroups as the biggest failure of European policy and said the idea had foundered because defence chiefs did not trust the EU.

The EU also scaled back plans for a common military command centre an initiative that has been incorrectly described by some British politicians as an EU army. Britain backed the plans in March, only to prevaricate on signing the legal text at the last minute, a delay that has infuriated some of the UKs closest allies.

EU leaders are expected to discuss defence at a summit in late June, days after Britain is due to begin negotiating its EU exit. Although the defence fund plans would not come to fruition until after Brexit, the British prime minister is entitled to take part in the June discussions.

In the Brexit white paper, the government said it wanted to use the UKs privileged position in international affairs to continue to work with the EU on foreign policy security and defence. The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has spoken of docking stations and doorways for further British involvement in EU foreign policy, but the issue has not featured heavily in the run-up to Brexit talks.

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EU to outline plan to use funds for defence for first time - The Guardian

The news that the third London Bridge terrorist was an Italian national suggests that the European ideal of the free movement of people is now over. For the United Kingdom, it was going to end anyway when we left the European Union, but the effort to counter terrorism means that it is likely to be over across the continent within a matter of years.

Of course, this does not follow in a direct line. Most of those responsible for terrorist murders in this country are home-grown, just as they are in France and Belgium. And we must never allow terrorist outrages to feed xenophobia or anti-immigrant sentiment. One of the heroes of the London Bridge attack was Florin Morariu, the Romanian baker who hit one of the murderers with a crate. In London and Manchester, the attacks have united people who have been born here and drawn here, as Tony Walsh, the Mancunian poet, put it.

However, the story of Youssef Zaghba that is emerging, of a young man born in Morocco with Italian citizenship who had lived in Ireland, would probably have led to greater restrictions on movement in and out of the UK even if the country had not voted to leave the EU. The Italian intelligence services claim to have tipped off the British authorities about Zaghba after he was stopped at Bologna airport and prevented from travelling to Istanbul last year.

The same pressure to keep closer tabs on terrorist suspects is being felt across Europe. The Schengen Agreement, the EU no-passport zone, has been repeatedly suspended between various countries in recent years.

London Bridge terrorists: What we know so far

The Independent regrets the curtailing of the European dream, the freedom of which Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green Party, in particular speaks so movingly, to live, love and travel across the continent. But all European states recognise that their first responsibility is to protect their citizens.

Many of the leaders of the EU, Angela Merkel prime among them, speak resolutely of the four freedoms of the Union:of goods, capital, services and people, and of their indivisibility. But there is a fifth freedom that cannot be ignored, and that is the freedom from the fear of murder. Free movement is already constrained in practice, not least by a system of surveillance and watch lists, so what will happen in the coming years is a matter of degree rather than of principle. It is a shame that movement will become more constrained rather than less, but the peoples of Europe will demand it.

The post-war European dream will have to adjust to new threats. Despite some of the more colourful warnings from David Cameron in the EU referendum campaign last year, the modern security threat in Europe is no longer that of war between nations, but of terrorism.

The great paradox of Brexit is that it is part of a movement that is happening across Europe. In many ways, the British referendum concernedthe wrong question at the wrong time. If Mr Cameron had been more resilient in fending off his internal opposition in the Conservative Party, it could be that restrictions on freedom of movement over the next few years might have made the referendum unnecessary.

As it is, it looks as if we will have to observe the end of the one of the founding principles of the EU from the outside.

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Regardless of Brexit, the free movement of European people is coming to an end - The Independent

The talks between the US and European council in Brussels last month. Photograph: Stephanie Lecocq/AP

The prospect of a revived EU-US trade deal is in deep freeze, according to Brussels sources, undermining reports that the EU has been inching ahead of the UK in the race for an arrangement with Washington.

Neither Donald Trump nor European officials raised the possible resumption of talks during the US presidents visit to Brussels last month, EU sources said. Documents relating to the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, known as TTIP, had now been locked in a filing cabinet and the code to open it had been lost, one diplomat joked.

It was reported in April that the UK had fallen behind in the queue to strike a trade deal with Trumps administration. According to the Times, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had convinced Trump that talks on a US-EU agreement would be simpler than he thought.

This had led to a realisation that a trade deal with the EU allowing the tariff-free exchange of services and goods would be more important to US interests than a post-Brexit deal with Theresa May, it was reported.

Talks over TTIP stalled last year amid opposition from within the EU, including sceptical comments from Frances then trade minister and the German vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel.

However, a meeting between Trump the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the European council president, Donald Tusk, two weeks ago offered the EU scant evidence of any such willingness, according to EU sources.

It didnt come up, one EU diplomat said. Its maybe not entirely dead but it is in deep freeze. The source said that the completion of an EU-Japan trade deal was nevertheless imminent, and would provide significant economic gains.

The development may offer Downing Street some fresh hope that the UK stands a better chance of engaging with Washington than Brussels does.

May has appeared less inclined to criticise the White House for its recent policy tacks including leaving the Paris climate agreement suggesting that the prime minister believes the UK stands a chance of forging an accord with the US administration if it avoids upsetting the president.

In Brussels, though, there is a high degree of scepticism about the UKs chances of getting a deal. Trump would have to be taught what trade means first, one EU diplomat said.

The source added that it was questionable whether the UK had the expertise to engage with the US administration on a trade deal. A UK-US trade deal would probably take 10 to 15 years anyway, the diplomat said.

The UKs attitude to the coming Brexit negotiations had given EU diplomats little evidence of such a capacity, the source added. Theresa May keeps saying she the chief negotiator. Is she really going to spend six days a week in Brussels negotiating?

If it is David Davis, fine. If it is Olly Robins [permanent secretary of the Department for Exiting the European Union] then fine, he knows the files, although maybe less the economic ones. We need to know who we are negotiating with ... I dont think they have a plan.

The warnings of a freeze in trade talks come despite upbeat comments in April from the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross. He said before Trumps first foreign tour that the US was open to resuming negotiations with Brussels.

Clearly at some point we need to do something with Europe, Ross said in an interview with the Financial Times. It seems a little weird that a car being shipped from Mexico to Europe pays no tariff as they have a bilateral [agreement with the EU] and a car being shipped from the US pays the full tariff.

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Hopes of EU-US trade agreement put on ice, say Brussels sources - The Guardian

Factbox-Impact on Insurers From Britain's Vote to Leave the EU New York Times (Reuters) - British insurer RSA followed rivals on Monday in announcing plans to set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg to act as the headquarters of its European Union operations following Britain's decision to leave the bloc. Insurers are setting up ... and more »

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Factbox-Impact on Insurers From Britain's Vote to Leave the EU - New York Times

On June 5, 2017, we celebrate the World Environment Day. The environment is essential in every aspect of life. The air, water, soil, food we need for survival, all depend on the environment.

On this occasion, the Delegation of the European Union to Sudan announced 8.5 million for projects addressing climate change in Sudan. The projects are financed by the EU Global Climate Change Alliance+ (GCCA+).

The objective of these projects is to improve the ability of Sudanese communities to respond to the challenges posed by climate change. This will be achieved through the protection and better management of farmlands, forests and rangeland. These projects will take place in areas of serious environmental degradation affecting people, agriculture, livestock, forestry and ecosystems. The projects involve the construction of adequate water facilities to improve water availability; rehabilitation of community forests and rangelands; and plantation of shelter belts around farmlands to stabilize movement of sand dunes and stop land erosion. The projects will also promote the use of renewable energy by introducing solar energy water pumps for irrigation and fuel efficient stoves or biogas for efficient cooking thus reducing the demand for firewood.

Specifically, the new EU funded projects will focus on rural communities living in the remote areas of North Darfur, Kassala, River Nile and Northern States. They will be implemented by the Netherlands Red Cross in partnership with the Spanish, Danish, and Swedish Red Cross and the Sudanese Red Crescent in River Nile, Kassala and Northern States. COOPI in partnership with the Sudanese Environment Conservation Society will be the implementers in North Darfur.

An important component of the projects is the engagement of local authorities and institutions, such as the Ministry of Environment and Physical Development. These actors will play a fundamental role in the dialogue with the local communities to better cope with climate change. The projects will therefore provide training to local authorities in natural resources management and support them in preparing environmental management plans. Specific studies and research related to climate change will also be conducted.

"The World Environment Day is an opportunity for the European Union., stated Ambassador Jean-Michel Dumond, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Sudan. We remain committed to sustainable Development Goals, and together with the African Union we will work on the 2016 Paris Agreement to endure. In Sudan, it means in particular addressing the needs of people affected by climate change. The EU will continue to lead through ambitious climate policies."

Background

Combatting climate change is one of the most important goals of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. Therefore, the EU is committed to allocate 20% of its development assistance (about 14 billion up to 2020) towards climate change objectives and environmental sustainability.

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European Union supports combatting Climate Change in Sudan [EN ... - ReliefWeb