Free Republic

Since Britain voted to leave the European Union, U.K. officials have had one message: Brexit means Brexit. Now they have EU leaders’ reply: And it’s going to hurt. The prime minister of Malta, whose country is about to assume the EU presidency, is the latest leader to dash Britain’s hopes of an easy divorce, signaling that the 27 other nations will drive a hard bargain. Joseph Muscat told the BBC that “there will not be a situation when the U.K. has a better deal than it has today.” “In the U.K. it’s fair game to bash Brussels and then you...

Germany and France announced plans Tuesday to share an air base and transport planes as part of a military shakeup in the wake of Britain’s vote to quit the European Union. The two countries signed an agreement with a view to sharing C-130J Super Hercules military transport planes, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Paris. His German counterpart Ursula von der Leyen, in Paris to sign the deal, told reporters both countries wanted to have the new arrangement in place by 2021. …

European Union nations pressed ahead Tuesday with plans to boost military cooperation as Britain vowed to oppose the creation of an EU army or headquarters. With Britain leaving the EU, France and Germany have been spearheading moves to boost Europe’s capacity to run its own security operations. […] “We are in a very strong Franco-German relationship and we think we will be able to make significant progress before the end of the year,” he said, standing alongside German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. Von der Leyen insisted that “it’s not about a European army.” …

British defense minister Michael Fallon has said the UK would veto the creation of EU military capabilities so long as it remained a member of the bloc. Reacting to EU ideas on closer defense cooperation, discussed at the Bratislava summit on Friday (16 September), he told The Times, a British newspaper: “That is not going to happen.” […] Proposals for what Germany has called an EU “defense union” included the creation of an EU military HQ, with medical aid and logistics capabilities, that would command EU crisis missions. […] The proposals, endorsed by France and Germany and by the European...

A child suffering a fatal illness has become the first minor to be euthanized since age restrictions on mercy killings were lifted in the country. Mercy killings have become increasingly common in Benelux countries. The head of Belgium’s federal euthanasia commission gave no details of the child beyond saying the patient was an exceptional case of a young person with a terminal illness, the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper reported. […] Any request for euthanasia must be made by the child, approved by a panel of physicians, an independent psychiatrist or psychologist and have parental consent. But the case files — which...

France and Germany are preparing joint proposals for a “more active and more useful” European defense policy, the French defense ministry told AFP on Friday. […] The Franco-German document proposes the establishment of a European defense headquarters, a common satellite surveillance system and the sharing of logistics and military medical resources, according to the Saturday edition of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. There would be a tighter circle of EU members for some defense projects where it proves impossible to gain agreement from all, the paper added, citing the document. …

The leaders of EU heavyweights Germany and France on Friday called for a new push to invigorate the bloc after Britain’s shock Brexit vote. Twenty-seven EU leaders will meet without Britain in Slovakia on September 16 and France’s François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a joint statement that a “new impulse” was required. “With Brexit and the rise of populism and even questions on the very idea of Europe, a new impulse is needed for the European Union,” they said. “France and Germany will assume their responsibilities” to do this, they added. …

Poland’s president has warned that Europe must learn lessons from World War II and must not tolerate any return to imperialist land grabs, an apparent reference to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s region of Crimea.Andrzej Duda was speaking Thursday at a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the start of World War II. […] “We cannot allow imperial ambitions and actions to return to Europe. … We cannot shut our eyes when international laws are violated … or when borders in Europe are moved by force,” Duda said. …

Half of Germans oppose German Chancellor Angela Merkel seeking a fourth consecutive term, according to a survey published on Sunday in the newspaper “Bild am Sonntag.” The survey, conducted by the polling company Emnid, asked 501 Germans in August whether or not they would like to see Angela Merkel serve another term as Chancellor after the federal election in second half of 2017. Results showed that 50 percent of poll participants were against a new term for the Chancellor, while 42 percent were in favor. She has come under fire from both citizens and fellow politicians for her refugee policies....

Eastern EU countries on Friday pushed for the bloc to create a joint army as they met with Germany for talks on sketching Europe’s post-Brexit future. “We must prioritize security, and let’s start by building a common European army,” Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orban, said at talks with Czech, German, Polish and Slovak leaders. […] Leftist Czech Premier Bohuslav Sobotka, for his part, said that “we should also begin a discussion about creating a common European army.” […] In an early response to Britain’s shock vote to exit the EU, Poland’s powerful rightwing leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski called for EU...

The leaders of Germany, France and Italy will meet on Monday to discuss how to keep the European project together in the second set of talks between the premiers of the eurozone’s three largest economies since Britain’s shock vote to leave the bloc. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on an island off the coast of Naples ahead of September’s EU summit called to discuss reverberations from the Brexit vote. “They will be coming to discuss how to relaunch Europe from the bottom up; there’s a big need,” Renzi said on...

German property firms expect a boom in Frankfurt as financial businesses move activities and staff out of London in the wake of Brexit, an industry survey showed on Monday. A majority of 72 percent of respondents believed financial center Frankfurt, rather than rivals Dublin, Paris, or Amsterdam, would gain the most from Britain leaving the European Union, the study of 555 firms by consultants Ernst & Young (EY) found. The German property market as a whole would get a boost from Brexit, 57 percent of those polled said, with large majorities expecting prices for commercial and residential properties to increase....

“Economic giant, political dwarf” — that is how the world long viewed post-World War II Germany, the European export power reluctant to use military muscle in global conflicts. It is an image that Europe’s most populous country wants to shed as it gradually assumes a bigger defense role, within the frameworks of NATO and the European Union. That ambition, the outcome of a debate that began two decades ago, is the message of Germany’s new military roadmap, the defense ministry’s so-called White Paper, to be released Wednesday. […] The paper, the first of its kind issued in a decade, envisions...

The former president of the of the European Commission, the European Union’s (EU) unelected executive arm, has been recruited as the new boss of international operations at Goldman Sachs, who funded the official anti-Brexit campaign. In May, in the run-up to the referendum, figures released by the Electoral Commission revealed that Goldman Sachs had quietly donated £500,000 to Britain Stronger in Europe – the official, government back anti-Brexit campaign – shortly before February when donations had to be declared.

German firms expect exports to Britain to tumble five percent next year in the wake of the Britain’s vote to quit the EU, an industry survey showed on Thursday. The German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) also revised its projection for 2016 to a one-percent drop rather than five percent growth. The figures were based on a survey of 5,600 businesses that export to Britain following the June 23 referendum in which 52 percent of Britons voted to leave the EU. Britain is currently Germany’s third-largest export market, buying up €89 billion of goods in 2015. …

The leaders of France and Germany assured prospective EU members in the Balkans on Monday that the British vote to leave the union won’t threaten eventual enlargement of the bloc. Balkan nations that survived wars and political breakups in the 1990s worry they will face more hurdles to membership as the EU struggles to keep itself together. And pro-Russian forces in countries such as Serbia are hoping to sway the region toward Moscow and away from the West, as the Brexit vote throws European unity into question. French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to soothe worries...

German politicians and media organizations from across the political spectrum have been scathing about Nigel Farage after he announced his resignation as leader of UKIP, Britain’s anti-EU political party. Farage announced on Monday that he was stepping down as leader of UKIP, saying he wanted his life back. But critics have accused him of irresponsibility, as the decision means he will disappear from the political limelight with the UK’s exit from the EU, which he has long sought, looking set to become reality. “First they lied and stirred up anger, then they created chaos and now they’ve run away. Nigel...

The foreign ministers of France and Germany are due to reveal a blueprint to effectively do away with individual member states in what is being described as an “ultimatum”. Under the radical proposals EU countries will lose the right to have their own army, criminal law, taxation system or central bank, with all those powers being transferred to Brussels.

In a foreign policy speech in Hamburg on Monday, Steinmeier announced that Germany would campaign for a non-permanent seat in 2019 and 2020. The country last held a Security Council seat from 2011 to 2012. Diplomats will seek support for Germany's candidacy before an election is held in mid 2018. Germany's application would require approval from at least two thirds of the 193 states in the UN General Assembly to be successful.

The eight EU members who do not currently use the euro may be forced to adopt it in a bid to speed up monetary union in the wake of Brexit. The Daily Express reports that Denmark, Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania will be given an ultimatum by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker . The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claimed there were plans afoot to accelerate the 'completion' of the monetary union. Brexit campaigners claim the plans show that the Leave vote in last week's referendum proved a 'great escape' for Britain.