Negotiations for the Brexit Deal, the Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union are still not on track.
Hogan: UK Negotiators Only Talk About Issues
The Guardian reports on the progress:
The two sides have been engaged in intensive negotiations this month, and informal discussions have continued this week. But despite the most contentious issues of access to British waters for European fishing fleets and new rules to prevent regulatory undercutting being under discussion, common ground between the sides is yet to be found with about 12 weeks left before parliamentary ratification will need to be sought.
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“We had been waiting for the last three months for the UK to come to the table in terms of meaningful negotiations,” Hogan said. “And I actually say it’s only in the last week or two that we have noticed that people are starting to engage on the UK side. We welcome that very much. I think there is now a realisation by people in the negotiating side of the UK that time is running out. The British business has started to be more vocal, privately and publicly, in relation to the importance of reaching a deal.”
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He said: “The UK is beginning to realise that as part of the European Union they were able to negotiate an agreement with various countries on the basis of 500 million people. It is different when you have 60-70 million people and therefore what will be asked of a single albeit large economy like the UK.
Read more in the full article here.
British Pharmaceutical Companies Should Start Stockpiling Medicine
Doubts about whether there will be a deal have now forced the UK Government to tell pharmaceutical companies to prepare for a No Deal Brexit just in case.
The Telegraph reports:
Pharmaceutical companies should stockpile six weeks' worth of drugs to limit disruption at the end of the Brexit transition period, the Government has warned.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has written to medicine suppliers advising them to make boosting their reserves a priority.
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"However, we encourage companies to make stockpiling a key part of contingency plans, and ask industry, where possible, to stockpile to a target level of six weeks' total stock on UK soil."
The advice comes amid continued uncertainty over whether the UK and the EU will be able to strike an agreement on a future relationship before time runs out.
Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier said last month that London's position made the prospects of a deal "at this point unlikely".
Read more in the full article here.
Brightest Minds Jumping Ship
Since the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union in 2016 the number of people emigrating from the UK to other European countries has risen by 30%. Half of those people did so in the three months after the vote.
The Guardian reports on results of the research:
Analysis of data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat shows that migration from Britain to EU states averaged 56,832 people a year in 2008-15, growing to 73,642 a year in 2016-18.
The study also shows a 500% increase in those who made the move and then took up citizenship in an EU state. Germany saw a 2,000% rise, with 31,600 Britons naturalising there since the referendum.
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“These increases in numbers are of a magnitude that you would expect when a country is hit by a major economic or political crisis,” said Daniel Auer, co-author of the study by Oxford University in Berlin and the Berlin Social Science Center.
According to interviews, half chose to leave the UK quickly. “Another important finding from the empirical evidence associated with Brexit is reduced levels of consideration and level-headedness in decision-making, with increases in levels of impulsiveness, spontaneity and corresponding risk-taking,” the researchers said.
Read more in the full article here.
The researchers also found that a large percentage of the Britons emigrating were highly skilled.
...the study found that UK migrants are among the most educated and skilled of those from any nation, with one of the highest net average income rates, suggesting that Brexit has begun a steady drain of the most talented and productive people to the continent.
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Interviews with UK citizens living and working in Germany showed Brexit had made people prepared to take on levels of risk that they previously would not have considered.
Read the full article here.
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