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Ministers are braced for a battle over plans to ditch a swathe of EU laws using “Henry VIII” powers. The government is set to unveil details of the “Great Repeal Bill” this week, part of the formal process of cutting ties with Brussels. The legislation will convert all EU law on to the UK statute books. But ministers also want to be able to adapt the laws as they are repatriated without full scrutiny by parliament. Jeremy Corbyn indicated that Labour will oppose the plans today, saying government should not be extending executive powers used by a “dictatorial and anti-democratic”...

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday that Britain would trigger the formal process for leaving the European Union before April, putting to rest weeks of speculation on the timing of the move. […] While the prime minister previously had hinted she planned to initiate Britain’s EU exit early next year, many observers had speculated she would wait until France’s presidential election ends in May. […] The prime minister also said she would ask Parliament to repeal the European Communities Act, which automatically makes EU rules the law of the land in Britain. May said her government instead would incorporate...

BRUSSELS bureaucrats are forcing Britain to cough up a staggering £20BILLION before the country unshackles itself from the beleaguered bloc, it has emerged.

Angela Merkel could move to oust Europe’s federalist chief Jean-Claude Juncker 'within the next year', a Germany government minister has said, in a sign of deepening European divisions over how to respond to Britain’s Brexit vote. The German chancellor’s frustration with the European Commission chief came as Europe split over whether to use the Brexit negotiations as a trigger to deepen European integration or take a more pragmatic approach to Britain as it heads for the exit door.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the EU summit in Brussels late on Tuesday that she didn’t see any way that the British decision to leave the EU could be reversed. “I don’t see a way to turn it round. This isn’t the time for wishful thinking,” said Merkel. The possibility of avoiding a Brexit was not even raised at the summit, the Chancellor claimed. “The referendum is a clear reality.” […] When EU leaders next meet in September, only 27 will be there, with Britain already shut out. “That is a good next step,” said Merkel. …

German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has said discussions on revising the treaty to secure the eurozone’s architecture will begin after the May EU elections. “After the EU elections, the debate about treaty change will be back on the table. The federal government will plead for institutional improvements, at least in the eurozone. The monetary union needs a joint finance- and economic policy, with corresponding institutions,” Schäuble said in an interview with Handelsblatt published on Thursday (27 March). He repeated his call for a eurozone parliament and a permanent chief of the Eurogroup, the informal gathering of eurozone finance ministers. …

The federalist Spinelli Group and German think tank Bertelsmann Stiftung launched yesterday (3 October) a proposal for a reform of the Treaty of Lisbon in the form of a draft treaty called “A Fundamental Law of the European Union”. … People present at the event were given copies of the 300-page book written in English, which will be sold at the cost of €35 ($48), and which was dubbed by speakers “the treaty of Bozar”. The book is in fact a legal text. It is preceded, however, by a more reader-friendly nine-page “Commentary”, which sums up the most important modifications...

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has said EU institutions need more power over member states to fight the crisis. Speaking on Saturday (1 September) in The Hague at a meeting of constitutional court judges organized by Yale University, he called for a "European renewal" and for a further "leap" of integration. "We are experiencing a situation in which we need greater unity and coherence between our policies, as well as greater legislative harmonization ... We need greater institutional integration. We need to consolidate a transnational order that through shared sovereignty guarantees the protection of our citizens," he said. …

London - You might want to take that vacation in England just as soon as you can – before its 1,000-year run as a sovereign nation comes to an end. This winter, 27 nations of the European Union (EU) signed the Treaty of Lisbon. You may think, "Innocuous enough," as Portuguese-inspired visions of the Tagus River and chicken piri-piri swirl before your eyes. But for England (Britain, actually) the Treaty of Lisbon isn't that appetizing. That's because, if ratified, it will become the decisive act in this creation of a federal European superstate with its capital in Brussels. Britain would...