EU – Page 42 – Slugger O'Toole

If Brexit means Brexit, the UK Can’t Block an EU Army

Gerry Lynch on September 18, 2016, 8:08 am

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“This is not going to happen. We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to NATO.” Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon’s response to proposals for an EU army discussed at the Bratislava summit ‘informal gathering’ of EU Heads of Government (minus Theresa May), reported in The Times yesterday cannot be, if Brexit means Brexit, anything other than a denial of reality. If government statements are honest, then the …

Indian Summer School: Nationalism After Brexit

David McCann on September 17, 2016, 6:50 pm

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THREE rising stars of Irish politics are set to come together to discuss whether Brexit will help or hinder the future prospects for a united Ireland. Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy, Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Darragh O’Brien and the SDLP’s Claire Hanna will take part in a roundtable discussion on the impact of June’s EU referendum result on nationalism at the Lighthouse Summer School in Killough, Co Down. The discussion is based on the premise that Article 50 will be …

Eastwood ‘Northern nationalists are once more a restless people’

David McCann on September 17, 2016, 10:06 am

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Next week, we will be taking part in an event looking at Nationalism in a Brexit world. Something that caught my eye during the week were remarks by the SDLP Leader, Colum Eastwood to the British/Irish Association last weekend. In his speech he spoke about the situation for Northern Ireland and Nationalism in post EU membership environment. Eastwood argued that Brexit had implications for the Good Friday Agreement; However, if the British Government continues down the road of dragging the …

“Giving meaning to Brexit”

Brian Walker on September 9, 2016, 9:34 am

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The best article I’ve read so far on the UK government’s approach to Brexit has been written by Andrew Tyrie MP, the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee for the think tank Open Europe. Problems for preserving an open border are clear if the UK leaves the customs union. But without doing so the UK cannot negotiate free trade deals with other countries. On the other hand, the analysis leaves open the possibility of an otherwise close relationship with the …

Message for the divided politicians. Read the long list. This is what really matters over Brexit.

Brian Walker on September 3, 2016, 6:53 pm

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Divisions in the Executive and the Assembly contributed to the lack of scenario planning for the referendum outcome and are inhibiting the development of a clear Brexit strategy. These are among the conclusions in a comprehensive briefing paper prepared for the Centre for Peace Building and Democracy ( chair Lord Alderdice) by Queen’s academics Professor David Phinnemore and Dr. Lee McGowan, entitled Establishing the Best Outcome for Northern Ireland. ‘Notoriously, similar strictures apply to Whitehall and Westminster, But party divisions …

David Davis’s bland assurances on an open border reveal only poverty of thinking. Where is the cunning plan?

Brian Walker on September 2, 2016, 11:34 am

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In his flying visit to Belfast yesterday, the Brexit Secretary David Davis failed to square the circle of pledging to keep an open border and controlling immigration. He seemed to equate an open border with the common travel area which of course predates EU membership. But they are not the same thing. In the old days international non-Irish immigration barely existed. The border was also a tariff wall of varying heights from 1923 onwards. While the DUP’s verdict on Arlene …

Why are [some] Irish politicians so reluctant to take Vestager’s €13 Billion and run?

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2016, 10:13 am

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So today should be interesting in Dublin. It should be a make your mind up day for the Irish Cabinet to decide on whether Ireland should, as a member state, challenge Tuesday’s ruling of European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. It could fall in several ways. It may force the government to assemble a water tight argument on the politically embarrassing tax justice issues involved in launching an appeal, or perhaps defer the pain by looking to the court to seek clarification …

“taxation is a philosophical exercise, it has nothing to do with mathematics”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 1, 2016, 11:03 pm

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The US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O’Malley, spoke on Wednesday to challenge the use of phrases like “tax haven” and “tax cheat” when discussing taxation of multi-national companies operating in Ireland. Watch/listen to his comments …

Big effort is needed to avoid polarising Brexit along Orange and Green lines

Brian Walker on September 1, 2016, 1:17 pm

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Yesterday Theresa May made it clear that while the devolved administrations will be consulted the decisions on Brexit will be taken by the UK government. The triggering of Article 50 will not require parliamentary consent and it will happen probably in January or February next year. A Norway-type deal looks ruled out because it entails free movement of people. Some immigration controls are a requirement for what Downing St is calling a “ bespoke “ solution for the UK. And …

Ireland, the US, the EU Commission and the dilemma over how to play an #AppleTax wind fall…

Mick Fealty on August 31, 2016, 9:31 am

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It’s awkward. Ireland’s FDI policy has been in train for nearly 70 years. It has shaped its economy not simply through cutting deals and sustaining low tax, but developing its education and outreach through its diaspora. It wasn’t just sentiment that brought big US companies ‘home’. The decision (available only by presser), by what amounts to the EU’s Civil Service, that Apple (a private company with approximately £600 billion in its savings account) must pay Ireland some €13 billion in unpaid taxes …

Poor little Ireland is squeezed in the battle of the titans

Brian Walker on August 30, 2016, 1:34 pm

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The basic foundation for the Celtic Tiger and the best hope for its revival? Or a scam that makes Ireland no better than tax haven? The day of reckoning may have arrived – subject to appeal.The Commission insists that they money must be used to pay down Irish debt anyway. Ireland backs away from treating the EU Commission’s implied offer of a €13 billion windfall from Apple because of real fears that wider FDI will dry up if other foreign …

How Sinn Fein only undermined themselves by turning on their own partners in Government…

Mick Fealty on August 29, 2016, 10:33 am

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In case you missed it, here’s my analysis of the debacle up to and following the resignation of Daithi McKay written for and published by the Irish Independent on Saturday. The nine-year government coalition between Sinn Féin and the DUP has been an odd and largely unproductive affair. In spite of the popular Chuckle Brothers routine between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, the positive fruits of that partnership have always been more apparent than evident. And under the skin, relations have often …

SOAPBOX – Bosnia-Herzegovina and the importance of accountable structures that deliver

Soapbox on August 27, 2016, 2:08 pm

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SOAPBOX – CRC’s Peter Osborne reflects on a recent visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina 21 years after the end of their conflict. He asks whether the international community will let Bosnia-Herzegovina down again as it continues to come to terms with its divisions and competing identities.

Former top civil servant O’Donnell has a viable vision of Remain

Brian Walker on August 27, 2016, 10:54 am

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Former Remain supporters of the moderate tendency have gained a powerful ally in Gus O’Donnell the former UK Cabinet Secretary. The role is recognised as the fountainhead of Making It Happen in government – or explaining to ministers why it can’t happen. It’s all the more important at such a politically volatile time. In an interview with the Times (£) he gives his thoughts on referendums and the massive difficulties of disengaging from the EU ( “years and years”). He …

Neither liberty, equality, nor fraternity

Samuel Thompson on August 24, 2016, 11:56 am

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Imagine a woman on a beach on a hot day, perhaps your mother, sister, girlfriend or wife. She doesn’t take the sun well so she doesn’t wear a bathing suit and covers her head with a cloth and her shoulders with a shawl while she sleeps. Imagine four police officers approach her, waken her up, demand she uncover her head and shoulders, then fine her for not exposing enough flesh. That’s close to what happened on a French beach yesterday. …

Revived plan to scrap the Human Rights Act adds fuel to the fires of Brexit controversy

Brian Walker on August 23, 2016, 11:13 am

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The surprising recommitment of the new UK Justice Secretary Liz Truss to a new British Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act adds a new complexity to the Brexit debate. If there are disagreements over the legitimacy of applying the Brexit referendum result to Northern Ireland and Scotland, there can be none about the central importance of the HRA to the Good Friday Agreement. Yes it’s true that the HRA is not part of the EU but EU …

Why is Martin McGuinness making a stand on ” remain must remain” the obvious loser, whatever happens with Article 50?

Brian Walker on August 20, 2016, 1:14 pm

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Martin McGuinness appears to have reverted to Brexit fundamentalism in an article in the Irish Times. He describes a worst case scenario, “ the biggest constitutional crisis since partition…and insists that “Remain must mean remain.” From our perspective, what is needed now is an island-wide approach to dealing with this crisis. That is why Sinn Féin called on the Taoiseach to establish an all-Ireland forum to discuss the impact of the referendum, to develop strategies and options to ensure that …

Barbers, Car Dealers, Printers: The “Olympic” Small Businesses Around Ireland and the World, and How They’re Watching Rio

Pádraig Belton on August 20, 2016, 11:47 am

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DUBLIN. When Farrell O’Boy launched his Olympic Cars in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, he thought he’d chosen ‘a strong name, and people would remember it’, says Danny McCabe, today its sales manager. Across the Irish Sea, Antonio Leto had emigrated from Sicily and worked as a barber when he set up his own shop, Olympic Barbers, in 1982. ‘He just wanted it to be an international barbershop—multinational, a barber for everyone‘, says his son, Ross, who now runs the shop, cutting …

An answer to Rentoul. Referendums like terrorism can shape events, but not always in the ways expected

Brian Walker on August 19, 2016, 6:40 pm

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Alerted by Mick on the thoughts on referendums by the Independent’s political commentator John Rentoul, I took in his part 2 “Should Referendums be banned?” This is a rhetorical question which is really in support of Rentoul’s contention that they make very little difference to the course of political events. His pieces prompted my following thoughts. Referendums like terrorism typically make considerable differences but not necessarily as intended. It is not true they never settle anything. It depends on the …

Maybe a change of management at the top of TeamIreland on its way?

Mick Fealty on August 17, 2016, 12:23 pm

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Something that crossed with the writing of the last post, but it should be here lodged here for the sake of completion. Chair of both the Irish and European Olympic Committees Pat Hickey has been arrested and is under suspicion for turning a quick buck selling an allocation of tickets to local touts… Adds: North Dublin TD was one of the first out of the blocks this morning, and had this to say… “I am now calling on the Minister …