Latest news with #EU-UKParliamentaryPartnershipAssembly
The Independent
12-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Post-Brexit youth mobility scheme with EU on the table - but under different name
A youth mobility scheme with the EU is on the table - but under a different name, The Independent understands, as MPs attempt to secure government backing for the agreement. A list of recommendations produced by the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly – a delegation of members from the UK and EU parliaments aimed at strengthening relations with the bloc - has urged the government to establish a 'youth opportunity scheme'. It is understood the scheme would operate similarly to proposals for a 'youth mobility scheme', which had become a major sticking point between the UK and EU. It would allow 18 to 35-year olds, including those doing apprenticeships, to move and work freely between countries for up to two years. Britain already has a similar agreement with Australia and 12 other countries, including New Zealand, South Korea, Iceland, Uruguay, Hong Kong and Taiwan. There is widespread support among the British public for such an agreement with the EU, with a YouGov survey of almost 15,000 people indicating that two-thirds (66 per cent) of people backed the scheme, compared to just one in five (18 per cent) who are opposed. In Nigel Farage 's Clacton constituency, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of leaving the EU in 2016, more than twice as many people were in favour (57 per cent) than against (25 per cent) the idea of a mobility scheme. EU officials see such a scheme as a key aspect of closer ties with Britain, but so far, the UK government has publicly opposed it. There is now hope among MPs on the parliamentary delegation that the change in language will help to get the agreement over the line, as it is understood that a key stumbling bloc for ministers was the term 'mobility' – amid fears critics would use it as evidence Labour is restoring freedom of movement. Supporters of the agreement insist that freedom of movement is not on the table, as the scheme would have clear limits – including on the length of time individuals can stay for and their age. Asked about the recommendation for a 'youth opportunity scheme', a government spokesperson said there would be 'no return to freedom of movement', but said ministers would 'look at the range of proposals made in the report'. Lord Peter Ricketts, a retired British senior diplomat and a crossbench peer on the delegation, told The Independent: 'That word mobility seems to be the stumbling block because it conjours up ideas of free movement – even though it would not be free movement'. 'A youth opportunity scheme is more acceptable on the UK government side. 'And as far as the parliamentarian sides are concerned, they're less worried about the words and more worried about giving young people opportunities', Lord Ricketts added. The Liberal Democrats, who have long been pushing for such an agreement, saw the latest developments as a victory. The party's Europe spokesperson James MacCleary told The Independent: "Whatever the scheme is called - 'youth mobility', 'youth exchange' or something else entirely - it's essential that the UK delivers for young people who deserve the chance to work and live in Europe. It's mad it's taken this long to commit to extending a scheme that we already have with Australia and Japan to our European friends. 'I hope to see firm plans put forward before the UK-EU summit in May." Meanwhile, Dr Mike Galsworthy, chair of the pro-EU European Movement, argued such a scheme is 'long overdue', insisting it will win the government 'new support and momentum'. He said he 'cannot fathom' why it has so far taken so long for the government to get behind it. A government spokesperson said: "We do not have plans for a youth mobility agreement. We are committed to resetting the relationship with the EU to improve the British people's security, safety and prosperity. 'Our starting point will always be to act in Britain's national interest, and we will look at the range of proposals made in the report. But we have been clear there will be no return to freedom of movement, the customs union or the single market.'
Telegraph
30-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Labour set to align Britain with EU net zero laws
Both carbon markets work by capping total emissions that can be released by polluting industries, which receive permits to emit greenhouse gases known as emissions allowances. Allowances can be bought and sold on the market. The higher the carbon price, the greater incentive not to pollute and to sell the allowance instead. On Friday, the carbon price per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent in the UK ETS market was about £40.16, compared to £59.57 in the EU. Plans to link the markets were discussed at the last meeting of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly in Brussels this month. 'We do need to have closer alignment and a strong, stronger relationship in that space,' Marsha de Cordova, the Labour MP for Battersea and head of the UK delegation, said after the talks. Lord Livermore, a Treasury minister, recently told peers: 'We recognise that alignment with existing regimes can reduce administration burdens, so we will align where appropriate. 'We also continue to explore all options to improve trade and investment with the EU, which includes the UK and EU giving serious consideration to linking our emissions trading schemes.' Experts told The Telegraph that the UK would have to accept that the ECJ was the final arbiter of questions related to EU law governing the ETS. 'I imagine that would be seen as a strong requirement or pre-requisite, especially if there is still regulatory divergence,' said Sam Van den plas, policy director at Carbon Market Watch. 'You need to ensure the maximum amount of regulatory alignment, or realignment,' he said, adding it was important for market supervision and compliance. Parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement are subject to ECJ jurisdiction. However, the trade agreement and UK involvement in the Horizon programme resolve disputes through independent panels. Baron Duncan of Springbank, now a Tory peer, was the lead MEP on reforms to the EU ETS before Brexit. He told The Telegraph that the pressure to align with EU policies would be intense. 'Everybody is out of step. So when you come back into the fold, you have to adapt very quickly to these EU initiatives and also be bound by the European courts, which will agitate the Brexiteers,' he said. He added that British businesses would not necessarily be ready for the 'judder' of a steep increase to the EU prices if the UK rejoins. Pressure to stay aligned The UK and EU both have the same goal of net zero by 2050, although the jurisdictions have different staging posts in the timeline to reach that target. Simply linking the two markets will not tie a future government's hands over net zero, although there will be pressure to stay aligned. The UK ETS covers energy-intensive industries such as steelmaking, power generation and aviation. From 2027, the EU will also introduce carbon pricing on road transport and building, making 75 per cent of the bloc's emissions covered by a carbon price. When the UK ETS was set up on January 1 2021, it was basically a copy and paste of the EU system, but there has been divergence in the rules since. The UK offers more allowances in some industrial sectors than the EU, which would have to be removed. The British mechanism to remove surplus allowances to the market and protect it from financial shocks is also slightly different to the EU's and will have to change if the UK rejoins. There is another incentive for Sir Keir to align with Brussels; the EU's plans for a carbon tariff border wall, which will come into force in January. The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) imposes tariffs on imports from outside the EU to prevent unfair competition with products made under lower and cheaper environmental standards. British businesses risk finding themselves on the wrong side of the tariff wall and vulnerable to increased costs. A UK CBAM is not scheduled until 2027, a year later. Rejoining the EU ETS could help reduce costs and simplify compliance for British exporters of products including fertiliser, cement, aluminium and hydrogen. It will also help avoid another politically toxic headache over Northern Ireland's Brexit deal. Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland would have to apply the EU's carbon border tariff to British imports even though it is also part of the UK. Formal negotiations on linking the two markets have not yet begun. EU governments must first give the Commission a mandate to start talks. There is a UK-EU summit on May 19, which could pave the way for those negotiations, as well as trade talks, a possible youth mobility deal, and a defence pact.
Euronews
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Brussels 'intensively' looking to start talks on EU-UK security pact
The European Commission is 'intensively' trying to get member states to give it a mandate to negotiate a security and defence partnership with the United Kingdom, a top EU official said on Monday. Negotiating such a partnership requires the unanimous approval of all 27 member states, but some countries, like France, have already signalled they want any security pact to be included in a wider reset in relations, seemingly returning to the Brexit mantra that 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed'. For the EU's external action service (EEAS), increased cooperation on security and defence with the UK 'is a must' because the current geopolitical context is 'dramatically' different from when the two sides struck the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) that lays out the terms of their relationship, its Managing Director for Europe, Matti Maasikas, told lawmakers on Monday. 'What could we do more? This being the EU you need the legal framework, you need legal basis to do things and since the foreign policy declaration was left out of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, we need to find new ways and a new basis for our cooperation,' Maasikas told lawmakers from Brussels and London gathered at the European Parliament for an EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly. 'The Security and defence partnership could be one of those instruments, should be if you ask me, if you ask the High Representative.' 'For that, the High Representative needs the mandate from the EU Council, meaning the consent of all member states, the discussions are intensively ongoing to obtain this mandate,' he added. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who came to power last summer, has been pushing for a security and defence pact which he said last month should focus on research and development, military mobility across Europe, greater cooperation on missions and operations, and industrial collaboration. Nick Thomas-Symonds, Britain's minister for EU relations, told the same joint parliamentary assembly on Monday that the UK is 'ready to negotiate' while Catriona Mace, the foreign and development policy director at the UK Mission to the EU, said that 'the status quo should not be the extent of our ambition'. 'We already work closely on our collective security,' she said. 'We must do more together.' Donald Trump's abrupt decision to launch talks with Russia on the end of its war in Ukraine has accelerated the rapprochement between the UK and EU member states with a flurry of leaders' meetings in various formats held over the past five weeks to discuss European defence and security guarantees for Ukraine. On this topic, France and the UK are more in lockstep, having both indicated their readiness to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission following a negotiated truce between Moscow and Kyiv. High representative Kaja Kallas, who has tabled an initiative for a coalition of the willing to provide military support worth up to €40 billion in the short term to Ukraine, is scheduled to visit the UK on Wednesday where she will meet Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin. 'I have high hopes on very fruitful discussions on all the issues,' Maasikas told lawmakers, 'on the pragmatic cooperation that goes on, and also on widening the basis for this cooperation.' Each ChatGPT question is estimated to use around 10 times more electricity than a traditional Google search. According to the nonprofit research firm Electric Power Research Institute, a ChatGPT request uses 2.9 watt-hours while traditional Google queries use about 0.3 watt-hours each. With an estimated 9 billion daily searches, this would mean an additional demand of nearly 10 TWh of electricity per year. The AI industry relies on data centres to train and operate its models, leading to increased energy demand and contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions. Microsoft announced its CO2 emissions had risen nearly 30% since 2020 due to data centre expansion. Google's global greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were almost 50% higher than in 2019, largely due to the energy demand tied to data centres. Energy use by artificial intelligence currently only represents a fraction of the technology sector's power consumption and is estimated to be around 2 to 3% of total global emissions. However, this percentage is likely to go up as more companies, governments and organisations use AI to drive efficiency and productivity. There are currently more than 8,000 data centres globally, with about 16% of these located in Europe. The majority of these centres are concentrated in the financial centres of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin. It is estimated that the electricity consumption in the data centre sector in the European Union will reach almost 150 TWh by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Electricity demand from data centres in Ireland was 5.3 TWh in 2022, representing 17% of the country's total electricity consumed. That is equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by all urban residential buildings. If AI application use continues to expand at a rapid rate, the sector could account for 32% of the country's total electricity demand by 2026. Denmark also hosts 34 data centres, half of them located in Copenhagen. As in Ireland, Denmark's total electricity demand is forecast to grow mainly due to the data centre sector's expansion, which is expected to consume 6 TWh by 2026, reaching just under 20% of the country's electricity demand. Meanwhile, data centres in Nordic countries – such as Sweden, Norway, and Finland – benefit from lower electricity costs. This is attributed to lower cooling demand due to their colder weather. The largest actor amongst Nordic countries is Sweden, with 60 data centres, and half of them in Stockholm. Given decarbonisation targets, Sweden and Norway may further increase their participation in the data centre market since almost all of their electricity is generated from low-carbon sources.
