Customs Union: New Action Plan to further support EU customs in their vital role of protecting EU revenues, prosperity and security

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Commission has today launched a new Customs Union Action Plan setting out a series of measures to make EU customs smarter, more innovative and more efficient over the next four years. The announced measures will strengthen the Customs Union as a cornerstone […]

Customs Union: Fake and potentially dangerous goods worth nearly €740 million stopped at EU customs in 2018

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. New figures released by the European Commission today show that the number of interceptions of fake goods being imported into the EU increased in 2018 due to a large amount of small parcels in express and postal traffic. Detention figures for seized consignments jumped […]

UK: Customs Union with EU or a longer delay of Brexit

Last week, the UK Parliament, the Commons, before rejecting PM Theresa May’s deal with large majority for a third time, had also voted down all eight alternative  exit options, ranging from a wild divorce to no exit at all. So far, the legislative has agreed only on delaying the exit. Now, the Prime Minister says […]

Britain’s May won the first round on the Brexit agreement with the EU

Last Tuesday, the British Prime Minister Theresa May, said she has struck a Brexit agreement on the future relationship with the European Union. In reality though this is a withdrawal agreement, not a full trade or otherwise deal for the future relations between the two sides. Yesterday she won the backing of her deeply divided […]

British PM May’s Brexit proposal remains obscure while her government unravels

Only days before, Theresa May, the British Prime Minister is expected to table her proposal for a Brexit deal in the Commons, the British Parliament, and her government appears unraveling. Her transport Minister Joe Johnson resigned last week, having revived the discussion about a second referendum. He was strongly pro-remain in the June 2016 Brexit […]

EU tells Britain stay in as long as you wish

This newspaper has repeatedly asserted there will be no real Brexit, at least in the foreseeable future. Last week, the European Council in Brussels confirmed this. The President of the Council, Donald Tusk, made it clear. He plainly said Britain can remain as a full EU member after the Brexit day of 29 March 2019, […]

EU-UK: A deal synonymous to ‘remain’, England pays the Irish price

On 24 August 2017 the European Sting’s leading article ventured that, “Brexit may finally not really happen; The Brits have second thoughts”. This prediction was based on the basics of a proposal which Theresa May had aired on Thursday 17 August of last year. On this information, the European Sting then reported that between Britain […]

10 Downing street: Another desperate attempt to unite Britain on Brexit

Once more, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is trying to pool together her deeply divided cabinet and country and formulate a common proposal for a Brexit deal with the EU. In the latest development, the ‘Leave’ campaign ministers and the Bremain group are reported by 10 Downing Street to have agreed on a ‘business […]

Celebrating the Customs Union: the world’s largest trading bloc turns 50

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The EU’s Customs Union celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 1, one of the greatest achievements of the European Union. Borne out of the landmark post-war agreements that paved the way for European integration, the Customs Union opened for business in 1968. By abolishing […]

To Brexit, or not to Brexit…rather not: 10 Downing Street, London

Almost exactly two years have elapsed after the Brits voted to leave the European Union. Tomorrow, Tuesday 12 June, the elected lower House of the Parliament, the Commons, is expected to open the way for Britain to remain in EU’s customs union and the single market for an extended period of time. Most probably, Prime […]

Is Britain to sail alone in the high seas of trade wars?

If Britain is counting on the US for a favorable bilateral trade agreement after Brexit, Donald Trump the President of ‘America first,’ rushed last Thursday to destroy that Brit dream; he announced 25% extra tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum imports, prompting anger and retaliatory measures from America’s closest political allies, Canada and the […]

Brexit negotiations: back to square one, tougher words, no good faith

This past week, the EU and UK  Brexit negotiators’ solemn exchanges became for the first time, really aggressive and plain. Since the beginning of September 2017, during the Michel Barnier – David Davis meetings there had being difficult moments. Nevertheless, the two chief negotiators never questioned the good faith of the other side; not any […]

Disintegrating Tories will void May’s pledge for Brexit deal in seven weeks

Last Friday, Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, said from China, where she was on official visit, that in seven weeks she will have a Brexit transition deal with the EU. Surely, nobody believes her. The reason is that her Tory governing party is so deeply split over the Brexit terms, up to the point […]

Brexit: PM May must hush Boris Johnson to unlock the negotiations

Last Thursday night in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, the French President Emmanuel Macron, backed by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, told the British Prime Minister Theresa May, there will be no change in the agenda of the Brexit talks; first the terms of the divorce will be agreed and then the future trade relations between […]

The EU stops being soft with 10 Downing Street about Brexit

After the failed successive meetings about Brexit between the European Union and the British negotiation teams, the European Commission decided to stiffen its position. Last week EU’s executive arm issued a Press Release saying, “As it was a UK’s decision to leave the EU, it’s a UK’s responsibility to propose solutions…”. One of the most […]

Brexit: Britain and the Continent fighting the battle of Waterloo again

The British Prime Minister Theresa May is amidst an agonizing effort to put together a decent package of trade deals or at least initial and relevant MOUs for the after Brexit era. The obvious reason for that is to convince the Brits and the Parliament that her country will survive after March 2019, in case […]

Brexit may finally not really happen; The Brits have second thoughts

Last Thursday the European Sting, alone amongst the English language media, announced that “At last Britain considers a super-soft Brexit”. Only hours later the British government published a policy paper envisaging the continuation of the European Union’s supervision of UK borders, even after the ‘full’ realization of Brexit. One of the two alternatives described in […]

MEP Cristiana Muscardini @ European Business Summit 2014: International Trade in Europe

Written by Cristiana Muscardini, Italian MEP, European Conservatives and Reformists Group, Vice Chair of Committee on International Trade The common commercial policy is a pillar for the external relations of the European Union. It is based on a set of uniform rules under the Customs Union and the Common Customs Tariff and governs the commercial […]