‘Outrageous!’ Brexiteer berates ‘arrogant’ EU official after bloc SCOLDS UK on sovereignty

Joe Biden: Expert discusses relationship with UK and Brexit

This week, the EU’s ambassador to the UK, João Vale de Almeida, ordered the US and UK to respects its autonomy over a new investment deal with China – despite Brussels constricting UK policy for decades. After the failure of the EU to respect the UK as an independent sovereign state throughout Brexit talks, the former MEP labelled the ambassador’s position as “outrageous”. He told Express.co.uk: “That is is utterly outrageous. What an arrogant, misplaced thing to say.

“The EU tramples all over any idea of sovereignty.

“I saw a couple of weeks ago Ms von der Leyen called on the collective sovereignty of member states.

“They don’t recognise any country’s sovereignty.”

This week, during an interview with Conservative think-tank, Bright Blue, Mr Vale de Almeida told Britain not to interfere in the EU-China investment deal.

We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

The deal, agreed last month, has come under scrutiny for the lack of workers’ rights provisions and the high threshold for what qualifies as state aid.

Both areas were key negotiating points during Brexit talks, with Brussels demanding the UK maintain a level playing field on the two.

The EU ambassador said: “The US, UK, and EU need to respect the autonomy of each of the players.

“There should be no problem if one country takes an initiative on its own.

JUST IN: Irish vaccine farce: Brussels BLOCKS Dublin bid to buy Oxford jab

“What is important is to have a dialogue on our way in which we deal with partners such as China.

“We shouldn’t ask this investment agreement to address all the issues that we have with China.”

The UK will now follow close alignment in certain areas with the EU as a result of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

In terms of the UK and EU, both sides have agreed to not lower labour or social standards and have included provisions to take action against either side if an unfair advantage has been created.

DON’T MISS
China lied over Covid and 2m died, we must treat Xi Jinping as pariah  [Comment]
Joe Biden snubs risks major UK spat as Winston Churchill bust removed [Insight]
Boris Johnson blasted by Lisa Nandy after defending Churchill  [Update]

In contrast, there are no strict provisions for China to adhere to labour standards, although it has stated it will follow the agreement.

Some commentators have expressed concern the Chinese government may ignore any provisions despite the intense scrutiny over forced labour in Xinjiang.

In a draft text seen by Politico, public support below 450,000 Special Drawing Rights over three years will not be regarded as state subsidies.

In the EU-UK trade deal, it states anything above 325,000 will be classed as state aid and if this is violated, there is scope for tariffs to be imposed.

Due to these inconstancies, Mr Habib concluded: “There they are doing a deal with China without any real constraints on state subsidies, and you know, the whole economy is effectively state-controlled.

“And here they are in the UK requiring us to sign up to a massive threshold for us to demonstrate that we’re not artificially subsidizing a particular sector or company and threatening punitive damages if we do.

“We have no partners and friends in the European Union.

“They’re hostile to us.”

EU officials have stated they will not require China to sign up to labour provisions but will instead set out a timetable of when they expect changes in the legislation to be made.

Source: Read Full Article