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BRITAIN took its first innocent step into the quicksands of Europe on January 1, 1973, led through the nose by devious Tory PM Ted Heath.

On Friday, exactly 17,197 days later, we will be out.

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We cheerfully joined the six original member states in what the Prime Minister promised was no more than a Common Market of trading nations.

In those optimistic early years even The Sun was an enthusiastic supporter.

As was new Tory leader Margaret Thatcher, who paraded in a garish pullover featuring the flags of nine member states at the referendum in 1975.

Today we can claim to have been a major force in the long-running campaign to leave.

In the 1980s we waved the British flag and stormed the battlements of Brussels.

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We were repulsed in more ways than one. But we never abandoned the fight to run our own country.

Today, with foreign cash flooding into the UK economy, new jobs and rising prosperity, we can claim we did our bit.

By the time we finally break free at 11pm on Friday, in a blaze of celebratory fireworks, we will have spent nearly half a century at the heart of Europe.

Most of us will be glad to wave goodbye.

We will retake command of our borders. Germany can invite as many unvetted migrants as it likes. We will not be bound by the European Court of Justice.

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The Queen, privately believed to be a staunch Brexiteer, has signed our release. Her consent to the Withdrawal Act delivers Boris Johnsons 2016 Brexit pledge: Take Back Control.

The EU anthem, Beethovens Ode To Joy, struck a sour note for many British voters especially our fishermen, who saw their billion pound industry gobbled up by marauding foreign fleets.

For all Ted Heaths sly denials, his goal from the outset was to bind the whole continent into a federal superstate a country called Europe. Then, in 1990, a bombshell document revealed how he sold us down the river.

Lord Chancellor Lord Kilmuir, the Governments most senior law officer, had warned him of serious surrenders of sovereignty which ought to be brought out into the open.

Heath ignored the warning, kept it under wraps and pressed on into Europe. The Sun was among the first to spot the covert and hotly denied plot to build a superstate.

We became the siren voice of disillusioned voters against Brussels meddling in what Europhile Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd called every nook and cranny of public life.

We made life hell for faceless bureaucrats and dud EU politicians. We were denounced as scaremongers. Other countries struggled in vain against power-grabbing regulation and slippery treaty changes.

Brussels own EuroStat polls revealed deep misgivings among its 500million citizens over the drive to centralise power over currencies and borders.

During the 2016 Brexit campaign, the anti-EU mood was even stronger in France. President Emmanuel Macron admitted he would not dare risk a referendum there.

He remembered the 1990s, when France, Ireland and Denmark balked at a pan-European Constitution turning them into EU colonies. They voted No only to be told to keep voting until they got it right.

Eventually the Constitution was imposed by stealth as the Lisbon Treaty and the EU decided never to risk consulting the people about anything ever again.

In the 1980s, the Commission launched an experiment, aptly known as The Snake, to abolish national currencies.

We raised the alarm, but in 1990 the European Commission president Jacques Delors pressed ahead with plans for the ill-fated euro.

Our stunning Page One headline, Up Yours Delors, published that year on November 1, has echoed down the decades.

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Thousands of Sun readers heeded our call to face East at noon, and bawl at Gaul.

In a pincer movement, we invaded Brussels with an armoured car full of Page 3 girls.

Our offensive was greeted with thin smiles...of panic. The Sun and its coverage of EU twists and turns became compulsory reading in the chancellories of Europe.

I was told our stories and editorials dominated Foreign Office cables to embassies across the EU.

In the battle to save the Pound, it really was The Sun what won it.

It was this newspaper that stopped Tony Blair, then all-powerful after two election triumphs, from scrapping Sterling and signing up to the single currency without a referendum.

With The Sun in opposition, he had no chance of winning.

Today, our stand is vindicated.

Despite Project Fears darkest predictions, the UK economy as we prepare to leave is growing faster than any other country in Europe.

Our jobless tally has plunged to 3.8 per cent the nearest thing to full employment and the envy of the blighted eurozone.

Millions of jobless young Europeans have flocked here in search of work they cannot find at home. Foreign firms are lining up to invest in UKplc.

The number of French people living in London is enough to make it Frances sixth-biggest city.

Brussels deepest fear is a Pied Piper effect as other member states watch the UK break free from an undemocratic political bloc and follow suit.

As The Suns Political Editor for 23 years, I enjoyed a ringside seat at summits and conferences around Europe, alongside Prime Ministers from Thatcher to Blair.

The power of nation states, leached away to Brussels, was the issue at every gathering.

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In the end, it brought down arguably Britains greatest peace-time Prime Minister.

Margaret Thatchers final blazing act of defiance before she was kicked out of office is seared in my memory.

She told a cheering House of Commons: What is the point of trying to get elected to Parliament only to hand over your Sterling and hand over the powers of this House to Brussels?

She accused Jacques Delors of diverting Parliaments power to tame MEPs, an unelected Commission and an unaccountable Council of Ministers.

No. No. No! she stormed.

Days later, she was out of office. But her words became a rallying cry to the Conservative Partys army of Eurosceptics.

These were the Tory bastards who made life hell for John Major as he signed the Maastricht Treaty, clearing the way for political and economic union.

They were the swivel-eyed lunatics who eight years later fought the euro, which was the greatest act of economic self-harm in peacetime Europe.

Britain thankfully kept its own currency. They were Sun readers who flocked to Nigel Farages Ukip and, later, his lethally effective Brexit Party.

From the very start, Brussels has been besieged by allegations of cheating and corruption.

In 1999, the entire European Commission including Transport Commissioner and ex-Labour leader Neil Kinnock were forced to quit amid damning claims of fraud and nepotism.

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Ironically, Kinnock had started political life, along with Tony Benn and pet parrot Jeremy Corbyn, as ardent anti-marketeers only to jump aboard the EU gravy train as a well-paid Commissioner, together with his wife, Glenys, and son, Stephen, now a Labour MP.

Even Kinnock could not match scheming svengali Peter Mandelson, whose road to riches began as EU Trade Commissioner with controversial links to Russian aluminium oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

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It was this twisted relationship with Brussels and Labours chaotic stance on Brexit which among other things cost them the last election.

How will it end?

Britain will thrive and prosper. Without us, and our 14billion a year, the European Union will struggle to survive.

The Key Rows

June 5 1975 FIRST REFERENDUM

BARELY two years after joining, a referendum was held on whether to stay in. Labour PM Harold Wilson backed Remain against a majority in his own party. He failed to persuade his wife Mary to vote in favour but two-thirds of voters took his advice and voted to stay in the bloc.

Nov 1 1990 Up Yours, Delors

OUR legendary front page headline was in response to European Commission president Jacques Delors efforts to force us into a European superstate. Margaret Thatcher was fiercely opposed and his plans melted away.

Feb 7 1992 Maastricht Treaty

PM John Major signed away much of Britains sovereignty in the treaty that formed the newly named European Union. The UK did win some opt-outs from the single currency and social chapter but critics say it still undermined the supremacy of our Parliament.

May 1 2004 EU Enlargement

LABOUR PM Tony Blair opened the door to migrants from ten new member states including seven from the ex-Soviet bloc without the restrictions imposed by Germany, France and Italy. Estimates of 13,000 migrants a year were wildy off the peak figure of 252,000 in 2010 alone.

June 23 Second Referrendum

AFTER being elected Ukip leader in 2006, Nigel Farage drove the campaign for an in-out referendum, something that had often been promised but never delivered. With support for Ukip threatening to deprive David Cameron of victory in the 2015 General Election, the Tories pledged to hold a referendum if they won. The historic vote came on June 23 the next year.

Dec 12 2019 General Election

FOLLOWING a bitter three years of Brexit wrangling on top of five decades of disputes over the EU the question is finally settled by a General Election. The public give Boris Johnson an 80-seat majority, enabling him to break the deadlock and finally deliver on the referendum result. It was a big swing on the indecisive 2017 election that saw then-PM Theresa May lose her majority.

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Original post:
The 17,197 days of Britain being throttled by Europeans as we break free on Friday - The Sun

Nicola Sturgeon is determined to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence in 2020 but Boris Johnson is firmly resisting the pressure and has repeatedly rejected her demands. The SNP's goal is for Scotland to leave the UK so the country would remain part of the EU. However, Holyrood would not become independent the day after a Yes vote, so even if a referendum was held tomorrow, the transition would run beyond the end of 2020 when the UK is due to complete its exit from the EU.

This means Scotland would leave the EU with the rest of the UK, and would need to apply to join again under Article 49 of the Treaty of the European Union.

Scottish ministers accept they would have to go through an "accession process" for EU membership and want to start this "as soon as possible".

However, there are several questions hanging over whether the country would even be able to join the EU as an independent state.

New members can only be allowed into the bloc through a unanimous vote from the existing member states and Scotland would undoubtedly ruffle feathers if it were to join.

Spain is struggling with secession demands itself, from Catalonia, so is unlikely to support a newly independent state.

Scotland could also be rejected due to its current deficit of 7 percent of GDP, unless it adopted a strict austerity programme from the EU as well as the euro.

There is only one part of the UK, which, according to one of Britains foremost constitutional historians, will be able to automatically rejoin the bloc.

Professor Vernon Bogdanor told Express.co.uk: The Belfast Agreement was conceived in the context of both Britain and Ireland remaining member states of the EU.

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Brexit, therefore, is likely to have consequences for the Agreement, in terms of North/South collaboration, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and indeed for the whole philosophy of power-sharing which lies at the basis of the Agreement.

Northern Ireland, which voted to remain in the EU, is indeed in a unique position in the EU.

If it did decide to join with Ireland, the European Council has agreed that the entire territory of the united island of Ireland would be part of the EU.

Northern Ireland, therefore, is the only part of the UK that could secede and rejoin the EU without need to re-negotiate entry.

Former Brexit Secretary David Davis echoed Professor Bogdanor's claims in 2017, when he said that the UK Government's position, in the event of a future border poll in favour of a united Ireland, was that should the people of Northern Ireland vote to leave the UK, they would "be in a position of becoming part of an existing EU member state, rather than seeking to join the EU as a new independent state".

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SNP snub: How EU will allow Northern Ireland to automatically rejoin but NOT Scotland - Express

To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. Elie Wiesel, Night

Seventy-five years ago, Allied Forces liberated the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. They ended the most abhorrent crime in European history, the planned annihilation of the Jews in Europe. Six million Jewish children, women and men were murdered as well as millions of innocent people among them hundreds of thousands of Roma, persecuted due to their ethnicity. The price was unspeakably high, but there could hardly be a more symbolic and greater triumph over the Nazis than to commemorate this victory in Israel.

Revisionism and lack of education are threatening the common understanding of the uniqueness of the Shoah that is necessary to translate Never Again into concrete action now. By joining todays meeting of Heads of State and Government in Jerusalem, we add our voices to those who are determined to not let extremists and populists go unchallenged when they are trying to cross boundaries and question once again human dignity and equality of all human beings.

The Holocaust was a European tragedy, it was a turning point in our history and its legacy is woven into the DNA of the European Union. Remembering the Shoah is not an end in itself. It is one cornerstone of European values. A Europe that places humanity at its centre, protected by the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights.

We are at a crossroads. As the number of survivors is dwindling, we will have to find new ways to remember, embracing the testimonies of the descendants of survivors. They remind us to be vigilant about the rising tide of antisemitism that is threatening the values we hold dear pluralism, diversity, and the freedoms of religion and expression. Values that cherish minorities: all minorities, and always. Jewish communities have contributed to shaping the European identity and will always be part of it. All parts of our society, new and old, must embrace these lessons from the Shoah.

We have a duty to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish communities as they feel again threatened across Europe - most recently in Halle, Germany. All EU Member States stand united in the determination that any form of racism, antisemitism and hatred have no place in Europe and we will do whatever it takes to counter them. State authorities, as well as actors from across all sectors of civil society should unite to reaffirm Europe's unfaltering vigilance whenever and wherever democratic values are threatened.

We cannot change history, but the lessons of history can change us.

Continued here:
Statement by Presidents Michel, Sassoli and von der Leyen on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau - EU News

The delegation of the European Union to Namibia recently announced that the Africa Working Group of the European Union Council (COAFR) will be visiting the country from 29 January until 1 February.

The group is composed of one representative of each EU Member State, the Commission and the Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. Ms Marie Lapierre from the European External Action Service is the COAFR Chair.

COAFR is responsible for the management of EU external policy towards sub-Saharan Africa, the African Union and other sub-regional organizations.

The visit aims at improving the groups knowledge and understanding of Africa, and, this year, more specifically of Namibia.

This years working visit will be the 7th visit of COAFR on the African continent and the 2nd one in Southern Africa.

EU-Africa relations are long-standing and currently focus on the comprehensive EU-Africa Strategy and preparations for the upcoming EU-AU Summit slated for 2020.

During this visit COAFR wants to learn more about the economy, the effects of climate change on the country and how best to collaborate with Namibia focussing on inclusive growth and on Green Deals amongst others.

The Working Groups programme includes a meeting with EU Heads of Mission, official meetings with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Hon. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Hon. Professor Peter Katjavivi, Speaker of the National Assembly as well as the Minister of Finance, Hon. Calle Schlettwein.

Furthermore, the City of Windhoek in collaboration with the EU Delegation in Namibia prepared a programme that includes site visits to Rocky Crest Early Childhood Development Centre, Bokamoso Entrepreneurial Centre, the Goreangab Water Reclamation Plant and the informal settlement area. The working group will similarly engage with private sector representatives, civil society organisations and the media.

See the article here:
Africa Working Group of the European Union Council to visit next week - Namibia Economist

The European Union finds itself in the most perilous quandary sine the immediate postWorld War II period. The risk is a split between the Central European and Eastern European member states and the majority of the others over a diverging interest. The changing U.S. world outlook, in particular, its European policy, may play a decisive role. To weather the storm five major challenges, calling for determined leadership, clear visions and statecraft must be overcome.

Brexit

The first one is to negotiate the future relationship between Britain and the EU. The EU will reject a deal with a neighboring country using low taxes, low labor standards, lavish state aids and subsidies and a soft regulatory framework for the environment, safety, etc., to enhance its competitive position. In reality, access to the single market with seven of its ten top export markets requires Britain to shadow EU rules without participating in decisionmaking. That will be hard to swallow as the obvious question is why did we leave if we have to apply the EU ruleset anyway?

Britain says prices on its products sold in the EU will go up and barriers may arise for its financial sector, which accounts for 10 percent of its total export to the EU. Concluding free trade agreements with other countries will be more difficult as they may ask for less stringent rules than applied by the EU, forcing Britain to choose between the EU rule set and what third countries demand. That is likely to happen for agriculture and food in a free trade agreement with the United States. The EU will not allow American agriculture and foods with lower standards to enter its market via Britain.

Inside Britain, devolution means that a trade deal with the EU might have to be approved by the British parliament and by the Scottish parliament. The door opens for exacting concessions about more powers to be transferred from Westminster to Edinburgh or even a second referendum about seceding from Great Britain. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will take up time and attention. For the first time ever, nationalists got more votes than the unionists (pro-Britain) raising the prospect of Northern Ireland following the Scottish example.

Carbon Neutral and Recycling

The second one is the plan for a European green deal. The basic idea is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and not to emit more greenhouse gasses than is absorbed for all twenty-seven member states. The EU is already on its way as greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 were 23 percent lower than the 1990 level closing in on the interim target of halving emissions by 2030. Several of the Central European and Eastern European countries that depend on coal for energy supply will struggle to meet this target.

Getting there will be expensive. An additional investment of Euro 260 billion equal to 1.5 percent of EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is necessary to meet the interim 2030 target and much more looking to 2050. It is envisaged to mobilize the private sector through a forthcoming Green Financing Strategy.

There may be a repercussion on trade issues as the EU has let it be known that its energy-intensive industries might be protected against imports from other countries with less stringent emission rules by a border tax.

These ambitions do not, however, stop with a green deal. Some years ago, the EU launched a program about a circular economy, which in its first phase introduces strong incentives to recycle waste aiming at getting to a point where the EU will be able to recycle all waste or close to all waste.

Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027

The EUs annual budget follows seven years of multiannual financial frameworks. The next one covers 2021-2027. Its negotiating and approval constitutes the third challenge.

Currently, the budget amounts to about 1 percent of EU GDP. For the next MFF, the European Commission asks for an increase to 1.114 percent while the European Parliament proposes 1,3 percent. These two institutions take part in the decision process about the MFF and the annual budget, but ultimately the member states decide.

EU has cut expenditure on traditional policies with agriculture as the prime example. Its share will be reduced to 30 percent compared to 37 percent for 2019 and 70 percent in 1985. Despite economies, however, the new programs about competitiveness, economic, social and territorial cohesion and the carbon-neutral program can hardly be squeezed in without an increase of the total budget.

Basically, it is a question of how much the richer member states in Northwestern Europe is willing to pay for a reorientation of the EU. The poorer member states in Southern Europe and most of the Central European and Eastern European member states recognize that the richer member states are net contributors to the budget, but point out that they benefit much more from the single market than they do. The snag is that a net contributor or net recipient is clearly visible while the benefits flowing from the single market is much more difficult to quantify.

Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Foreign Trade Policy.

The fourth one is to turn the embryonic Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) into a genuine common policy.

President Donald Trump has been busy demanding renegotiations of trade deals or launching trade wars. So far, the EU has escaped his wrath but for how long? With Boris Johnson, regarded as a political twin as prime minister of Britain and the lull in the trade war with China, there are considerable risks that Trump will shift his attention to the EU. He thrives by crisis and few things are more popular in America than blaming other countries for economic difficulties. The different attitudes towards climate change may raise a fire on trade especially if the EU implements a border tax against the United States, pointing to its less stringent environmental regulation.

EU member states are trying to confront the problem of how to react inside the framework of the Common Foreign Trade Policy. The United States will undoubtedly try to play member states against one another by introducing tariffs against sensitive sectors in some member states and keeping others out of the foresight. Those escaping tariffs will be told that the price is to stop the EU from retaliating.

The Central European and Eastern European countries may be targeted. The majority see the United States and not the EU as guaranteeing their security vis--vis Russia, who they fear still harbor dreams of reestablishing a degree of influence if not control over this part of Europe. They are not prepared to run the risk of antagonizing the United States.

After Russia annexed Crimea March 2014, the EU adopted sanctions and maintains a common attitude towards Russia but not without costs for some member states being traditional exporters to Russia.

Experience shows that over time sanctions suffer from fatigue and there are signs that some member states feel the time has come to loosen up and test whether some kind of living together with Russia is possible.

If such efforts are launched, and they probably will in the not so distant future, then solidarity will be tested. This was visible when the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 under the Baltic Sea was negotiated. Its purpose is to transport natural gas from Russia into Europe and in particular Germany by circumventing the land routes via Central- and Eastern Europe including Ukraine. Central European and Eastern European countries fear that Russia might use the new pipeline to cut them off from traditional supplies.

Over the last five to ten years a seminal change has been visible in the U.S. stance towards China. From seeing its involvement in economic globalization as almost exclusively positive, there is now an emerging consensus that China is a competitor and a potential threat that gained access to U.S high tech on the cheapa threat that must be stopped. European leaders now voice similar concerns. Only a few days ago a plan surfaced to look into state-owned companies (read Chinese ones) investment in the EU, investigating whether they enjoy state aids.

A number of member states, primarily in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, have attracted large investments from China, which has helped stimulate economic growth. They may resist measures, whichChina will perceive as questioning the future relationship.

Deepening the Integration

The fifth challenge is to strengthen the Eurozone, a common defense, protect the external border and ensure that all member states adhere to the principles underpinning the integration.

The Eurozone is for the time being doing quite well and a considerable strengthening has taken place since the outbreak of the global financial crisis 200809. It is, however, clear that it has still not found a shape where it is beyond doubt that it can further economic growth and withstand a new financial crisis should it come.

Europe still depends on the United States for its defense as most nations only spend between 1 and 1.5 percent of GDP on defense. Whats more is that despite strenuous efforts over many years, no European structure has been built to frame a common defense.

Go here to read the rest:
Five Challenges for the European Union - The National Interest Online