Cuba and the Eurpean Union Monday signed in Brussels their first cooperation agreement, which will be from now on the legal basis of the link between the island and the 28 EU countries.
China's battle for recognition as a market economy that would help it avoid penalties from key trade partners has been thwarted, as a key clause in Beijing's deal to join the WTO expired on Sunday.
As EU's Interior Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos declined an extension beyond February and pushed for things to go back to Schengen, Germany prepares to go ahead on its own to maintain the border controls in Bavaria for a longer period of time. Border controls between the Schengen countries are only acceptable as a time-limited exception to the rule of open borders. Better protected EU external borders should make the controls in the interior of Europe superfluous.
The United Kingdom House of Lords EU Select Committee has launched a new short inquiry on the implications of Brexit for Gibraltar. The committee will meet next week and take evidence from Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and Attorney General Michael Llamas.
Four day debate Five months after United Kingdom's referendum to abandon the European Union, the question of who actually gets to pull the trigger on Brexit remains a muddle. Prime Minister Theresa May says she does. A high-level British court argued otherwise last month, ruling that Parliament must have a say. Now it’s up to the U.K. Supreme Court, which this week began hearing arguments in a case that could complicate May’s plan to set in motion Britain’s exit by the end of March.
Austrian voters could elect the European Union’s first far-right leader in the a presidential election on Sunday. Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party is running against Alexander Van der Bellen. Van der Bellen is an independent candidate who led The Greens party earlier. Recent public opinion studies have shown the two candidates with about equal support.
United States was given 90 days to drop a special tax exemption for the giant aerospace company Boeing because it amounts to an unlawful subsidy. The World Trade Organization (WTO) made the order after investigating a complaint from the European Union.
Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has dropped José Manuel García-Margallo from his cabinet, replacing him as Foreign Minister with a career diplomat from Jerez de la Frontera. Although there had been wide speculation that García-Margallo would not continue in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the appointment of 61-year old Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo took most pundits by surprise.
The European Union and Canada signed a free trade agreement on Sunday that aims to generate jobs and growth though it must still clear some 40 national and regional parliaments in Europe in the coming years to enter fully into force.
Brazilian president Michel Temer said that Portugal and Spain are determined to help speed trade negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union. Temer made the announcement on hosting Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa who was on a brief visit to Brazil for the Community of Portuguese Language Countries summit in Brasilia.