Tag: Britain

Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the American aid agency USAID have been accused of ignoring evidence of human rights abuses allegedly linked to their support for a multibillion-dollar social services programme in Ethiopia.

The question of Britain in Europe has been a running sore in British public life for too long, and as such has proved a constant irritant on both sides of the Channel. It needs to be settled, writes Malcolm Rifkind.

This is a defining moment for Europe, according to the UK’s Europe Minister, David Lidington. The UK’s Balance of Competences Review is not designed as a prelude to cherry-picking the Treaties, or to British exit from the EU, he argues, and asks for European input in the process.

The European Union is becoming a three-tiered club and Britain risks being left on the outer margins of it, Finland's Europe minister, who was among the first to warn about Britain drifting away from Europe, will say in a speech on Tuesday (5 February).

Norway is failing to live up to its obligations as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), including imposing extra taxes on EU products and not implementing more than 400 directives, according to an EU report to be published later this year.

Britain is right to demand greater openness in the European Union but cannot expect to be accorded special rights that might unravel the bloc, senior members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition were quoted as saying on Sunday (27 January).

David Cameron’s promise of an in/out referendum leaves europhiles in Britain with a choice of two unattractive alternatives: a detached ‘outer lane’ vision of Britain’s place in Europe, or leaving the EU altogether, writes Mark Dawson.

The United States wants Britain to stay in the European Union and fears a British exit would run against US interests, a senior official in Barack Obama's administration said on Wednesday (9 January).

Britain must use the upheaval created by the euro zone crisis to forge a new relationship with the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday as he fights a rising anti-EU mood at home that could threaten his chances of re-election.

Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband vowed on Monday (19 November) he would not let Britain sleepwalk towards exit from the European Union as Prime Minister David Cameron prepared for tough talks in Brussels this week on a renewal of the bloc's budget.

In a wide-ranging interview with EurActiv.de, Romano Prodi, former European Commission President, says moves towards a two-speed European Union were now well underway. Regarding the UK's disengagement from Europe, his assessment is simple: Britain will lose influence and eventually face "grave difficulties".

Brussels has placed itself on a collision course with Britain's ruling Conservative party by issuing a blunt warning on the dangers of stifling the green agenda.

Europe is the key to the future of the coalition government in Britain. Unless the current tendency to pander to the eurosceptic right is abandoned, the Liberal Democrats will be inevitably driven into a future coalition with a Labour Party that has declined to commit political suicide by heading too far to the left, writes Tom Spencer.

The statement from British Foreign Secretary William Hague that his government would conduct a full "audit" of the impact of EU law on Britain has been condemned by commentators as a mere public relations stunt. But the coalition government has defended it as a chance for constructive debate on the role of the EU institutions at national level.

British chancellor George Osborne backed down on one of his key demands that all derivatives trading be immediately covered by new EU rules but won some smaller concessions on controlling a market once described as the "Wild West". 

Britons vote today (5 May) in a referendum on electoral reform that has split the year-old coalition government and raised doubts as to whether the partnership will last.

Prime ministers from nine northern European countries are meeting in London today (20 January) as part of a British initiative to find ways to boost growth and innovation in green technologies such as offshore wind. 

Despite persistent rumours, the ruling British Conservative Party denied suggestions that they would eventually return to the mainstream centre-right EPP group in the European Parliament. EurActiv spoke to a leading party representative yesterday (31 May).

UK Finance Minister George Osborne yesterday detailed 6.2 billion pounds (7 billion euros) of spending cuts. Meanwhile, austerity measures due to be approved by Italy's cabinet today (25 May) are expected to reduce the budget deficit by 24 billion euros over two years.

Although the British Conservative Party is openly critical of some aspects of the European Union, it has nevertheless made Europe free, stable and prosperous and its member states must now focus on issues such as climate change, poverty and energy security, writes William Hague, the UK's new foreign secretary, in a commentary for Europe's World.

After tense negotiations, the EU has succeeded in breaking a deadlock between Britain and other member states on three new watchdogs to supervise Europe's financial sector.

UK Prime Minster Gordon Brown should work to dispel the 'demonic myths' that have 'poisoned' Britain’s relationship with the EU, a new Centre for European Reform (CER) booklet claims.

A study out in Britain substantiates that labour migration from Eastern Europe has been "broadly positive." Meanwhile, Belgium appears determined to keep its labour market closed.

Speaking at an agriculture event in the UK, Commissioner for agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel defended the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, pointing out that Britain did not veto the CAP deal of 2002.