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By Susanna Twidale

LONDON: Taking Britain out of Europe's energy market could stymie development of new power links designed to help avert a looming supply crunch and also drive up the cost of imported European electricity, National Grid has warned.

Prime Minister Theresa May signalled a so-called hard Brexit on Tuesday, which would involve leaving Europe's single market when Britain quits the European Union (EU).

May gave no indication of what this would mean for energy markets in her speech.

But any change could have implications for the development of Britain's electricity supplies, around 9 percent of which come from European imports.

Several more power links are planned over the next decade, which are intended to give Britain access to cheaper electricity abroad as the country faces a supply crunch by the early 2020s as old nuclear power plants and coal-fired power stations close.

National Grid said that each 1 gigawatt (GW) of new electricity interconnector capacity could reduce Britain's wholesale power prices by 1-2 percent, with 4-5 GW of capacity equating to a 1 billion pounds ($1.23 billion) saving.

"However, for interconnectors to be economically viable... they must be able to sell their capacity to traders and therefore require efficient and robust trading arrangements between the two countries," National Grid said in an evidence submission to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee, which was published on Friday.

Britain currently has access to tariff-free electricity trading with Europe due to its participation in the so-called internal energy market (IEM), but National Grid said leaving this market would make cross-border trade more difficult.

"While alternative arrangements can be put in place that would allow trade to continue these are unlikely to be as effective or efficient," it said.

National Grid also warned the cost of delivering new projects could rise due to Britain leaving the European Union.

"Restrictions on trade and movement of labour could impact adversely on the cost of delivering new interconnector projects," it said.

National Grid was among a group of firms submitting evidence ahead of a BEIS Committee hearing on Brexit negotiation priorities for energy and climate policy, to be held on Jan. 25.

British utility Centrica also stressed the importance of Britain's access to Europe's energy markets.

"The IEM has improved the efficiency in trading power and gas across Europe, supported infrastructure investment and helped deliver security of supply for the UK," Centrica said. ($1 = 0.8143 pounds)

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National Grid warns of costs if Britain exits European Union energy market - ETEnergyworld.com

BRUSSELS Thisis an organization town, and Donald Trump has dedicated himself to smashing the system. So his inauguration Friday was greeted with sadness, concern and even despair in the home of the European Union and NATO.

In the Beaux-Arts center of the city, more than 1,000 people turned out the Place de la Monnaie to protest his presidency, try to protect the transatlantic alliance he has vowed to upend and join in solidarity with the Women's March scheduled for Saturday in Washington.

In a city where many people work for vast organizations that devote themselves tearing away borders and bolstering international alliances, Trumps arrival in Washington threatens the ideals many have devoted their careers to upholding. And it gives sustenance to the anti-immigrant, anti-establishment forces who are challenging mainstream leaders in elections this year in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

[Burning flags, protests and a sprinkling of enthusiasm: The world reacts to Trumps inauguration]

The atmosphere is one of great uncertainty, said Antonio Fernandez, a Spanish citizen who manages research grants at an office of the European Commission and took part in the protest. He seems to be determined to undermine the European Union and everything it represents.

In part because of Trump, in part because of the British vote to leave the European Union which helped fuel Trumps insurgent campaign I dont know if the European Union is going to be herein 10 years, Fernandez said.

Other Brussels protesters were simply concerned about his policies toward women, Muslims and world affairs. More than a thousand people chanted, banged on drums and vowed to oppose Trump for the next four years. When Trump was sworn in at6 p.m.Brussels time a howl lifted up from the crowd.

Its a topic in every work lunch, said Monique Gerwers, who works in internal communications at a polyurethane manufacturer about 15 miles north of Brussels. Its so sad to have someone like Trump in control.

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An inauguration party for Donald Trump in Russia

Continued here:
In the home of NATO and the European Union, dismay as Trump takes power - Washington Post

The casual smackdown that Donald Trump delivered to the European Union and NATO last weekend only fortified Europeans impression that the American president-elect isnt looking for warm relations. Now, the next six months will bring historic decisions about the future of Europes economic integration and the worlds most successful military alliance.

Trumps election has thrust Europe, long used to a certain privileged, if sometimes ambiguous, status in American foreign policy, onto everyones list of things to tend to after Jan. 20. But, with only tweets and shoot-from-the-hip interviews to go on, no one really knows how the relationship will unfold.

What in fact is really going to happen when everybody sits down at their desks at the White House? said Jackson Janes, president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. The Europeans cant know.

What they can know doesnt offer much hope for harmony.

Trump and some of his closest advisers already have working relationships with rightist politicians in Britain, France and Austria. His election has also surfaced plans, previously the province of obscure websites and lesser-known pundits, that aim to use American influence to break up the European Union. And while Trumps view on those plans is unknown, hes a firm advocate of a British-American free-trade deal, whose negotiation could put the United States on a collision course with the other 27 European Union members.

Tight Links With Right

The deepest source of European unease with Trump may be his tight links with right-wing politicians, and the lack of lower-rung officials who are even known to European governments.

Theres Nigel Farage, the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party that long fought for Britains exit from the European Union. Hell be attending Trumps inauguration.

Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of Austrias Freedom Party, met with Michael Flynn, Trumps choice to be national security adviser, last month. This party, founded by a collection of ex-Nazis and other political outsiders, has long sought to break into the Austrian mainstream, and narrowly lost a recent election for the countrys largely ceremonial presidency.

And Marine Le Pen, leader of Frances National Front, has been sighted lurking outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, though no meetings were confirmed.

In any other transition from one major American party to the other 1981, 1993 or 2001 European officials could fall back on people whom they knew would staff the new administration. These former officials, think tankers, and retired military officers provided a network of contacts, and their temperaments were known to the world of diplomacy.

Trump EU Ambassador

This time around, Europeans know that Steve Bannon, the former head of the website Breitbart, who is now a White House adviser to Trump, has an open line to European fringe politics.

Trump has also interviewed Ted Malloch, a former United Nations official and traveling pundit, as a potential U.S. ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. Malloch openly supported the departure of Britain from the EU, and has echoed Trumps disparaging words about the EU.

Seeing this kind of commentary up front, the danger hes running is, simply, that no one will listen to him, said James Elles, a former conservative member of the European Parliament. It would be as though a European ambassador were walking around criticizing the union of the American states.

Over the weekend, Trump predicted that more countries will leave the EU and promised the United States would throw itself into negotiations with Britain for a free-trade deal after he takes office. British Prime Minister Theresa May will travel to the United States to meet Trump in February.

British-American Deal

Were gonna work very hard to get it done quickly and done properly. Good for both sides, Trump said. Well have a meeting right after I get into the White House and itll be, I think were gonna get something done very quickly.

Combining those two points about the EU and a trade deal with Britain suggested that Trump backs a plan, hinted at by Bannon at times, to pick off other European countries from the bloc by offering them similar agreements. Even if this strategy fails, the friction generated between the United States and Europe would be enormous, probably greater than any issue in transatlantic relations in the past 50 years.

More urgently, the timing and symbolism of a negotiation with Britain could immediately put Trump crosswise with the rest of Europe.

May announced in a speech this week that Britain would pursue a hard Brexit, as its departure from the EU has become known. Specifically, it will give up access to Europes broad and deep economic integration, and take full control of its own borders, immigration having been a central issue in the Brexit campaign.

European Agenda

That process will unfold over two years, beginning sometime in the spring, as Britain replaces EU-mandated rules with its own. Until then, the country will remain a member of the EU, and cannot conclude trade deals with other countries on an independent basis.

If Britain and the United States even start a negotiation before its European Union membership ends, it runs the risk of hardening Europes negotiating stance in the Brexit process. Britain, in short, would be seen as a sort of stalking horse for Trumps apparent break-the-EU strategy.

If the Europeans think they are sitting across from Trump and the UK, they will fight that much harder, said one former European official.

The stakes are high for Britain, which wants to preserve Londons status as a global financial capital in the face of Brexit, and also needs a solid trade deal with the rest of the EU.

For the rest of Europe, the central challenge is hammering out a common agenda so it can avoid a new relationship based entirely on reacting to Trumps tweets and emerging policies, Janes said. That could have to do with Russia, or trade, or even China.

Europe needs to figure out what it can do together, Janes said. Because if it doesnt, Trump will pick them apart in five minutes.

Read more here:
European Union Grapples With a Trump Presidency That Could Exploit Its Own Turmoil - InsideSources

New figures released earlier this week by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show property price inflation in Ireland rose by 8.6 per cent in the year to November

Ireland recorded the second highest increase in house prices in the European Union during the third quarter of 2016, according to new figures published by the EUs official statistics body, Eurostat.

House prices in Ireland jumped by 4.7 per cent versus the second quarter, behind Malta, which saw prices rise by 5.4 per cent, but ahead of Estonia, Lithuania and Hungary, all of which showed a 3.4 per cent increase.

The latest figures show euro zone house prices grew at the fastest rate in more than eight years in the third quarter.

Prices climbed 3.4 per cent on an annual basis, the highest rate seen since the first quarter of 2008, when prices rose by 3.5 per cent. However, on a quarterly basis, euro zone prices were up by just 1.3 per cent.

House prices for the EU as a whole climbed 4.3 per cent in the third quarter and were up by 1.5 per cent versus the preceding three-month period.

The highest annual increase in house prices in the third quarter of 2016 was recorded in Hungary, where prices jumped 11.6 per cent. Latvia had the second highest year-on-year rise, up 10.8 per cent, followed by Bulgaria, where costs rose 8.8 per cent.

The biggest annual declines in prices were in Cyprus, down 3.3 per cent, and Italy, where prices were 0.9 per cent lower.

New figures released earlier this week by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show property price inflation in Ireland rose by 8.6 per cent in the year to November, and up 1.5 per cent versus October.

In Dublin, where supply shortages are most acute, prices were up 1 per cent in November and 5.9 per cent on an annual basis.

More here:
Irish house prices: second highest increase in European Union - Irish Times

Switzerland may be outsidethe European Union, but the country is not looking for an anti-EU alliance with the UK, its foreign minister has said.

Following Theresa Mays 12-point Brexit blueprint speech, Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter said: We want good, maybe even closer ties with Britain. But we will not forge an alliance with Britain against the EU.

This dashes the hopes of businesses that the countries could work together to negotiate with the EU over terms of access to the single market while being able to restrict freedom of movement.

In interviews with several Swiss newspapers, Mr Burkhalter said the Government had approved a plan last June to adjust bilateral relations with the UK as a result of the Brexit vote.

Mr Burkhalter said Switzerland is prepared for the UKs plans to leave the EU Switzerlands main trading partner.

We want to improve relations in several fields. It is also an opportunity [for us], if not everything has to be done via the EU, he told the Tages-Anzeiger and Bund newspapers in a syndicated interview.

Mr Burkhalter admitted that there were several unknowable factors but said the Swiss government would soon discuss ways of launching negotiating mandates with Britain.

Our goal is to have legal security as soon as possible, he told the Wednesday edition of the Neue Zrcher Zeitung newspaper.

Swiss business leaders have expressed concern about the impact of Britains plan to leave the European single market.

The Swiss bankers association last year proposed an alliance with London, Hong Kong and Singapore to thrash out deals on accessing EU markets without being hit with high tariffs.

In July, Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said stable relations with Britain were crucial for the Swiss banking sector and pharmaceutical industry and called on the Swiss and UK Governments to hold talks as soon as possible.

Following Theresa Mays speech on Tuesday in which she indicated the UK would pursue a clean break with the EU, Mr Burkhalter said at the World Economic Forum in Davos: At least we now know what the UK government wants and this is important for our ties with the UK.

Wealthy Switzerland is frequently cited by Brexiteers as a nation which has flourished without being a member of the EU.

Relations between Switzerland and the EU are framed by a series of bilateral treaties where the Swiss Confederation has adopted various provisions of EU law in order to participate in the Unions single market.

The Swiss narrowly voted to restrict immigration in a 2014 referendum, with 50.3% in favour, and have been locked in talks with the EU to implement the measure ever since.

Switzerland is currently at stalemate in its negotiations with the EU after being told it will not be able to access the single market without allowing freedom of movement.

The Swiss are anxious to strike a deal as the countrydepends heavily on the EU for trade, and in November its Government partially climbed down onimmigration proposals.

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Switzerland rejects post-Brexit alliance with UK against EU - The Independent