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European Union leaders meeting Saturday to approve the guidelines that will drive divorce negotiations with Britain will also assess wording which would allow a united Ireland — including Northern Ireland — to become part of the bloc at a potential future date. Two European officials said that the issue was likely to be added to the minutes of the summit, which will be held without British Prime Minister Theresa May. The officials asked not to be identified because the summit of 27 EU leaders still was being prepared. …

A British vote to leave the European Union could cost the economy £100 billion and 950,000 jobs by 2020, according to research commissioned by employers' group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The CBI said "Brexit" would deliver a serious shock to the British economy, regardless of any trade deals the country could negotiate with its former European partners. "This analysis shows very clearly why leaving the European Union would be a real blow for living standards, jobs and growth," CBI Director-General Carolyn Fairbairn said in a statement on Monday. "The savings from reduced EU budget contributions and regulation are...

Scotland’s leader says she doesn’t want to use a possible British vote to leave the European Union as leverage to achieve independence. But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon concedes that Scots’ secessionist spirits would be inflamed if English voters forced them out of the EU. Sturgeon spoke Sunday on the second day of her Scottish National Party’s spring conference, which is focused on strengthening nationalist control of Scotland’s Parliament in a May 5 election. […] Sunday’s published poll data suggested that Scottish voters appear much more enthusiastic than their English neighbors about staying inside the 28-nation bloc, with 50 percent planning...

The increasing predilection for fragmentation across the continent will result in Teutonic political hegemony - if we're lucky ___ Europe is disintegrating. Two large and ancient kingdoms are near the point of rupture as Spain follows Britain into constitutional crisis, joined like Siamese twins. The post-Habsburg order further east is suddenly prey to a corrosive notion that settled borders are up for grabs. "Problems frozen for decades are warming up again," said Giles Merritt, from Friends of Europe in Brussels. The best we can hope for - should tribalism prevail - is German political hegemony in Europe. The German people...

The U.S. Senate is keeping up the pressure on the European Union (EU) to not hamper U.S. production and exports through the appropriation of common food names. This time the focus is on commonly used meat names, such as “bologna” and “black forest ham”. In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the senators urged them to defend common names, especially in negotiations with the EU on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).Last month the Senate sent a similar letter focused on common cheese names that are under attack, including “parmesan”, “feta” and...

Despite a thousand years of history, the nation-states of Europe contain within them ethnic groups and nationalities who yearn for their own country. In some cases, the national and ethnic character of these minorities have been deliberately stifled. There has also been organized movements that have sprung up to fight for the national aspirations of the minorities. Next year, votes for independence will occur in Scotland and Spain's rich Catalonia region. Some analysts believe that success in either case may lead to other minorities to seek their own path to independence. From Reuters: __________________________ Some suspect the two campaigns will...