• Brexit, von der Leyen: "Progress but differences remain"

  • Brexit, Barnier: "An agreement between the EU and the UK is still possible"

  • Brexit is still being negotiated.

    Von der Leyen-Johnson: "Let's go an extra mile"

Share

December 18, 2020

"It is the moment of truth, there is little time left, a few hours useful in the negotiations to guarantee the entry into force of the agreement on January 1. As von der Leyen said, the possibility of an agreement exists, but the path is very strict, so we have to take decisions and everyone has to assume their responsibilities. I will take mine in compliance with the mandate of the 27 ": said the chief negotiator for the EU Michel Barnier to the EU Parliament, recalling that" it was the British to set a strict deadline for their exit, they rejected any extension of the transition period "that the EU had proposed in June.

We want an agreement but not at all costs


"We want an agreement, but it will not be an agreement at all costs, I don't know what the outcome of this last phase of negotiations will be. We are trying to find an agreement on fisheries, we are not sure that we will succeed if no one takes a step forward, added Barnier, speaking to the EU Parliament. "This is why we are ready for any scenario, and we have prepared the emergency measures to be ready for a 'no deal'".

Sturgeon: Scotland will have independence, the EU will welcome us


"If London did not grant us a second referendum on independence, it would be a democratic abomination".

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), says this in an interview with La Repubblica, strong of the polls that give the independence of Scotland from the United Kingdom of Boris Johnson ahead of ten percentage points.

A real record.

Sturgeon argues that a second referendum is a "right" and no one "can deny it" all the more "if the SNP has more than 50% of the votes in May" and so "as in the United States with Joe Biden, democracy will prevail" too. in Scotland.

"I have no doubts," says the SNP leader.

Nicola Sturgeon also states that "our referendum will have to be legal, because I want independent Scotland to be recognized by the other states, to then be able to rejoin the EU".

The point is, however, that Scotland said "no" to independence in the 2014 referendum (55%).

But at the time many pro-Europeans voted to remain in the UK because the UK was fully in Europe: leaving it would have meant for Edinburgh to abandon both London and Brussels, as the British would have vetoed the admission of an independent Scotland to the EU.

Two years later, however, Brexit turned everything upside down and stirred up Sturgeon's separatists, who aspire to be the first to shatter the UK three centuries after the "Acts of Union" of 1707. So now they are calling for a second referendum.

But if the stalemate continues, Sturgeon assures, "we could be forced to force the approval of a new referendum by denouncing the British government to court and start the legal battle. Westminster cannot continue to block Scottish democracy. The UK is a voluntary union of nations, remember that ".

And he guarantees: "We are independentists, but" very European ". The EU would welcome us back with open arms and in a short time. We have been in Europe for over 40 years, the single market, EU standards and norms suit us very well. made to stay in the EU ", concludes the Scottish independence leader.