Monday 10 May 2021

POLITICO

POLITICO

Italian minister criticizes UK’s decision to hold EU nationals in immigration centers

Posted: 10 May 2021 02:20 AM PDT

LONDON — Italy's deputy interior minister has criticized the U.K. government for holding EU citizens without work visas in immigration removal centers.

POLITICO reported last week that tens of EU nationals, including about 20 Italians, had been detained at the U.K. border and held in these centers.

In response, Ivan Scalfarotto tweeted: "The Europe of Erasmus, that peaceful and prosperous one made up of millions of young people that grew up building a common identity and culture, disintegrates when put in front of young people in detention centers in the U.K. If this is Brexit, it has a bitter taste."

EU diplomats have expressed concern about the transfer of the bloc's nationals to immigration removal centers, where they are being held for up to seven days in some cases before being returned to their home countries. This mirrors the treatment nationals from non-EU countries in the same situation have long faced.

The Home Office has not yet released official data on the number of EU nationals held at these centers since the start of the year. But POLITICO has heard of 30 cases involving German, Greek, Italian, Romanian and Spanish nationals. One of them, a Spanish woman aged 25, was released Friday after four days in an immigration removal center where a coronavirus outbreak has been detected.

Following Brexit, EU nationals are prevented from entering the U.K. for work purposes without either a work visa or EU Settlement Scheme status, which guarantees the residence rights of those who were living in Britain before it left the EU.

EU nationals can enter Britain visa-free for tourism and stay for up to 180 days. The U.K. Border Force is entitled to reject entry to EU nationals if officials have reasonable grounds to suspect they intend to work in the country but can't produce a work visa. The officials cannot, however, ask EU citizens for their residence status under the EU Settlement Scheme until the deadline for applications closes on June 30.

A Home Office spokesperson said the department does not routinely comment on individual cases. EU citizens resident in the U.K. by December 2020 are encouraged to apply for residence status under the EU Settlement Scheme by June 30, they said, adding these people are "our friends and neighbours and we want them to remain."

"For those who were not resident before this date, as the public expects, we require evidence of an individual's right to live and work in the U.K.," they said.

She left politics to drive a garbage truck

Posted: 09 May 2021 07:01 PM PDT

GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Some politicians follow life after politics with a glitzy PR job at a global tech company. Others prefer to rack up gold-plated consultancies.

Ann-Sofie Hermansson drives a garbage truck.

On a recent weekday, the former mayor of Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, pulled her work vehicle into a parking spot behind the headquarters of Renova, a publicly owned refuse collector. She picked her way across dirt-dappled walkways and through Renova's warren-like offices to the cupboard where she hangs the truck's keys. On the way she stopped to admire a new electric-driven garbage vehicle a couple of colleagues were road testing for locally-based Volvo Trucks.

"People sometimes ask me what the hell am I doing here, but for me this is a good solution," she said. "I have to pay the rent."

At a time when voter focus across Europe has become increasingly trained on the lucrative private-sector afterlives of top lawmakers, and whether new limits should be placed on them, Hermansson's path offers a striking counterpoint.

After a successful career as a ministerial adviser in Sweden's capital Stockholm, and later as the top official in Gothenburg, she was sidelined by her own Social Democrat colleagues after an unsuccessful 2018 election campaign.

But rather than follow a well-worn path into public relations — an option she said was on the table — or into an advisory role for one of Sweden's many successful manufacturing companies, she decided to dust off a heavy-goods-vehicle driving license she had obtained on the advice of her father in her younger years.

When her notice period was up, Hermansson donned Renova's high visibility orange overalls and took the wheel of one of the company's trucks. She often collects compost, which Swedes deposit in brown wheelie bins outside their homes, and said locals regularly recognize her and stop her to talk politics on her rounds, which she enjoys.

"At least no one is upset with me," she said. "That makes a nice change from working as a politician."

Recycling door

In Sweden, as across much of Europe, well-paid, white-collar jobs in the private sector are the norm for many ex-lawmakers.

Hermansson is less the model than former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and former Finance Minister Anders Borg, the duo who ran the country from 2006 until 2014, when they both took consultancy roles with U.S. banks. Borg also added a role at a Sweden-based investment company.

The revolving door between politics and business hasn't caused much of a ruckus in Sweden, as it has in other countries — in the U.K. former Prime Minister David Cameron is in hot water for texting the British chancellor on behalf of a finance firm that employed him as an adviser. But Hermansson preferred to sidestep the whole debate.

"PR and that type of thing wasn't for me," she said.

While unusual, her post-political asceticism isn't unique.

Uruguay's former president José Mujica refused to accept a state pension when he left office, and his assets have been reported as consisting of one battered VW automobile.

Closer to home, Sweden's former Education Minister Gustav Fridolin forewent a post-ministerial payoff he was entitled to and took a job teaching at an adult education college in central Stockholm. He found the job on the Swedish public employment service website, he said.

"Even though working in the government was very fulfilling on those occasions when we actually brought about change, I can't really say I was happy every time I went into the department, but that is the feeling I get when I go into the school," he said.

She’s for real

Ann-Sofie Hermansson was born on Tjörn, an island just north of Gothenburg, in 1964.

She joined Volvo when she was 19, was assigned a role transporting parts, then joined the local chapter of the metalworkers’ union and the Social Democrats’ youth wing and made a name for herself as an advocate of workers' rights.

Hermansson held various jobs within the Swedish union movement before being recruited to Gothenburg to work with mayor Göran Johansson, a dominant figure within Swedish Social Democratic politics.

In January 2016, she herself became mayor, running a city of over half a million people, with a big say in everything from childcare to multi-million-euro infrastructure projects.

"It was a hectic time," she said.

Hermansson said that in the main she has enjoyed her switch to Renova. She said the work is physically hard, but has the advantage of set hours and weekends without crisis meetings and constant phone calls.

During her first year helping keep Gothenburg clean, she has regularly updated a popular Twitter feed which often highlights the work of her colleagues.

A recent post introduced her followers to Jonathan, who keeps track of the keys for Renova and sings in a heavy metal band in his spare time.

The response to Hermansson's career switch has been largely positive within Swedish media with incredulous reporters keen to track her progress.

At first there was a suspicion her move might be some kind of politically motivated performative act, but as the months have passed, the consensus has become that she is for real.

A recent editorial in the Swedish daily Expressen, which featured Hermansson and Fridolin, proclaimed: "Hats off to the ex-politicians who get real jobs."

Hermansson said she plans to continue at Renova for the foreseeable future but didn't rule a political comeback down the line — even if she doesn't always have the energy to follow the latest party leaders' debate on television after a day dragging bins full of compost across Gothenburg's cobbled central streets.

"I often ache at the end of the day, but I enjoy my work and I sleep well at night, and that's important," she said.

Haste Ye Back! How Scotland could return to the EU

Posted: 09 May 2021 07:00 PM PDT

The election victory of pro-independence parties in Scotland is an urgent issue for one union — the U.K. — but it may also pose important questions down the line for another: the EU.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Scottish Greens, which together claimed an absolute majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament, both stood on a platform of an independent Scotland joining the European Union.

Sturgeon would have to overcome many hurdles before she could arrive in Brussels to present a membership application. She’d have to secure another legal independence vote — which the U.K. government has so far refused to grant — and win it. The independence camp lost the last referendum by more than 10 percentage points in 2014 and polls suggest Scots are currently evenly split on the issue.

But if that moment does arrive, how would the EU treat such an application? And what advantages and disadvantages would an independent Scotland have in seeking membership?

A membership bid from Edinburgh would present the EU with a unique case — a country that had already been inside the bloc as part of an ex-member state asking to rejoin the fold. But, in legal terms, that context wouldn’t matter: Scotland would have to follow the same procedure of applying for membership as any other country, as set out under Article 49 of the bloc’s treaties.

Although there are a number of countries already waiting in line — mainly Western Balkan nations that applied years ago — things could go much faster in the Scottish case.

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“Scotland would be assessed like any other candidate country for the state of its democracy, the state of its economy. And in many ways that looks quite positive,” Kirsty Hughes, director of the Scottish Centre on European Relations think tank, told POLITICO’s EU Confidential podcast.

“You can compare it to the Western Balkans and say, ‘Look, a long-standing democracy … it’s got its own parliament, it’s got its own legal system, it’s got its own education system separate from that of the rest of the U.K.,'” Hughes said.

However, an independent Scotland would have to set up new institutions such as a central bank, a foreign ministry and various regulatory bodies — and the EU would have to be convinced they met the bloc’s standards and were robust and resilient.

Some of the most serious scrutiny an independent Scotland would face from the EU would be on economics and public finances.

A recent study by the U.K.-based Institute for Government think tank concluded an independent Scotland risks starting out with a much higher deficit than would normally be allowed under EU rules.

The SNP has suggested Scotland would continue to use the British pound, even without the permission of U.K. authorities. It’s at least questionable whether the EU would be happy with a member state using the currency of a non-member, particularly the U.K. (The EU requires new members to commit to joining the euro — even if some have yet to adopt it after many years of membership.)

“Of course, any instability, be it of political, economic or fiscal nature, would reduce the appetite for enlargement on the EU side,” said Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels.

He added that Brussels would also want to make sure that Scotland becomes a net contributor to the EU budget instead of an economic or fiscal problem child.

“Here the Scottish government has some homework to do to make sure everything goes smoothly,” Zuleeg said. “However, in principle, there is no reason to believe that Scotland could not act independently economically and be financially stable.”

And on the political front, Zuleeg said there would be plenty of goodwill from the EU.

“We are talking here about a part of the United Kingdom that, also because of Brexit, seeks independence and wants to belong to the EU value community,” Zuleeg said. “And in this respect, I think the mood on the EU side is rather positive.”

He suggested an independent Scotland might be able to conclude membership negotiations in two to three years, similar to Finland’s accession process in the mid-1990s.

Everybody expects the Spanish inquisition

Despite that general goodwill, Scotland would first have to pass a crucial hurdle: winning the blessing of all EU countries, as approval to start membership talks requires unanimity from current members.

Spain, in particular, has long been wary of any treatment of Scotland that could encourage independence movements within its own borders, such as those in Catalonia or the Basque country.

Ignacio Molina, a senior analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute, a Madrid-based think tank, said it would be crucial for Spain that any Scottish secession is legal under U.K. law, and not declared unilaterally as Catalonia’s regional government tried to do in 2017.

Yet as long as this condition is respected, “there won’t be a veto” by Spain, Molina predicted. He added that a calming of the political situation in Catalonia as well as the composition of the current left-wing Spanish government, which is partially supported by moderate pro-independence Catalans, “helps to put the emphasis on these technical considerations without strong politicization of the issue.”

Madrid will, however, likely demand certain assurances: “What the Spanish diplomacy has always underlined is that Scotland would need to apply as any other candidate, with no shortcuts or privileges, such as for example an opt-out from the euro currency or the Schengen zone,” Molina said.

Part of this “no privileges” approach, Molina said, is that Spain wouldn’t accept the EU giving any assurances to Scotland ahead of an independence referendum that it has a guaranteed path to membership, as was recently demanded in an open letter by more than 170 cultural figures from across the EU.

Divergence difficulties

Another more technical hurdle for a swift accession to the EU is the U.K.’s desire post-Brexit to diverge from certain EU rules, for example on food safety and animal welfare, partly to have more flexibility to strike trade deals with countries such as the United States.

A potential independence date of 2026 floated by the SNP “is only five years away, but how much might Scotland and the rest of the U.K. have diverged in EU regulation by then?” asked Hughes. “And how long will it take to come back?”

The issue raises big questions about how a border between an independent Scotland — inside the EU — and the U.K. — which would remain outside — would work. The continuing wrangling over the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland shows just how vexing those questions can be.

Scotland would also have to find a way to bridge the gap between leaving the U.K., and thereby the EU-U.K. trade deal, and joining the EU and its single market.

One temporary solution to avoid the imposition of crippling tariffs for Scottish businesses could be to negotiate a transition phase with both the EU and U.K., during which Scotland remains a member of the post-Brexit trade deal between London and Brussels despite having left the U.K.

However, there would be many technical challenges and potential trade frictions if the U.K., for example, diverges from EU standards while Scotland at the same time tries to converge as part of its membership bid. Ultimately, Scotland might have to rely on complicated patchwork solutions to try to preserve both its trade with the rest of the EU as well as across a future Scottish-British border.

David McAllister, a German Christian Democrat with Scottish roots who chairs the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said there are “many uncertainties” about the conditions under which Scotland could potentially leave the United Kingdom.

“So, at the moment, this is a purely inner-Scottish and inner-U.K. matter” that EU officials are not keen to comment on, said McAllister, speaking a few days ahead of the Scottish election.

“But should they become an independent state, they could apply for membership like any European country that is committed to share and promote the EU’s values. And we would scrutinize all the challenging political, economic and juridical issues like with any other candidate country.”

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer reshuffles top team

Posted: 09 May 2021 02:49 PM PDT

LONDON — U.K. opposition leader Keir Starmer reshaped his top team late Sunday night as he sought to recover momentum following a slew of poor election results.

Shadow Chancellor Annelise Dodds was demoted to the role of party chair to make way for Rachel Reeves, who had been shadowing the Tories’ Michael Gove in the Cabinet Office brief.

In a press statement Starmer said his party "must change" and embrace "the demand for change across our country … That will require bold ideas and a relentless focus on the priorities of the British people.”

News of Starmer’s new-look team came late on Sunday night after a day of silence from his office. There had been recriminations from internal critics on the left of the party after news leaked on Saturday night that Deputy Leader Angela Rayner — herself a left-winger — had been moved from her post as party chair and national campaigns coordinator. The deputy position itself is an elected role from which she cannot be removed by the leader.

Starmer insisted on Friday that he took “full responsibility” for a torrid set of results, including the loss of the Hartlepool parliamentary seat and over 250 council seats across England.

Rayner was given a new role on Sunday night as shadow Cabinet Office minister, with a brief that includes the future of work. Dodds will chair a policy review and replace Rayner as party chair. Starmer also sacked the party’s long-serving chief whip, Nick Brown, replacing him with his deputy Alan Campbell.

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Boris Johnson to press ahead with lifting England COVID curbs

Posted: 09 May 2021 02:30 PM PDT

LONDON — Boris Johnson will press ahead with unlocking England on May 17, Downing Street said Sunday night.

From that date, six people, or two households, will be allowed to meet indoors, and 30 people will be able to congregate outdoors. Most businesses will be able to reopen, and pub and restaurant customers will be able to eat and drink indoors. Cinemas and children’s play areas will also be able to reopen.

Large events and sporting fixtures will be allowed to resume with a reduced capacity for spectators, and weddings and funerals will be allowed to go ahead with up to 30 people.

In comments released by No. 10, ahead of a press conference on Monday at which Johnson will confirm the move, the U.K. prime minister said his roadmap out of lockdown remained “on track.”

“The data reflects what we already knew — we are not going to let this virus beat us,” Johnson added. Downing Street said infection rates had plummeted to their lowest level since September, and more than 35 million people have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that 1 in 1,180 people have COVID-19, down from 1 in 480 at the start of April.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove confirmed friends and family would be allowed to hug again from around May 17.

“Friendly contact, intimate contact, between friends and family is something we want to see restored,” Gove said.

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Europe’s hedge bet: India

Posted: 09 May 2021 02:08 PM PDT

India's foreign minister studiously avoids naming China directly, but Beijing looms large behind his explanation of why the EU and India decided on Saturday to have another shot at resuscitating moribund trade talks, which collapsed in 2013.

For Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, supply shocks during the coronavirus pandemic have starkly exposed Europe’s import security problems, as well as India’s. But when asked whether he was alluding to an overreliance on New Delhi's giant rival across the Himalayas, he sidestepped any reference to Beijing and described Europe's move to resume trade talks with India, in more general terms, as a big hedge bet.

"[COVID] has raised issues of transparency, it has raised issues of trust, it has created concern about reliable supply chains," Jaishankar told POLITICO in an interview. "So, I think that Europe is looking at strategic autonomy, looking at a multipolar world, which is actually hedging its risk. Mitigating its risk."

For Europe, the most pressing concerns about supply chains during the pandemic have centered on overdependence on China for technology and medical equipment. A European Commission communication last week said 52 percent of the products in "sensitive ecosystems" where Europe is highly dependent came from China.   

Jaishankar warned that these strategic worries would not necessarily disappear after the pandemic, but should be treated as a new normal. "We have to restructure the world, reengineer the world, taking a pandemic kind of situation as a constant."

World’s most difficult talks

Even with Europe's need to diversify from China, there is no guarantee that EU-India trade negotiations will prove successful at the second attempt. Jaishankar, who has previously described these talks as potentially the world's "most difficult" negotiations, conceded that they would not be concluded "overnight," but said there was now, finally, a "more than decent possibility" of success.

The Europeans have frustrating memories from eight years ago when they failed to break down barriers to India's highly protected markets for cars, agriculture and liquor. But Jaishankar, a former ambassador to Washington and Beijing, said there was now a new dynamic. "The politics is changing. I would say the chemistry of it is changing."

China is, once again, the unspoken dimension in that shifting chemistry.

EU countries last month signed off an Indo-Pacific strategy that aims to project great European influence in an area where China is the superpower.

Jaishankar welcomed this EU attempt to view the region beyond the trade lens and move toward joint projects in the defense, infrastructure and digital sectors. He noted, however, that Europe still had more to do. "We would certainly like to see a more active and visible EU presence in the Indo-Pacific. Now whether that happens collectively or individually is something for the EU to work out."

While, for example, European countries have promised a “meaningful” naval presence in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, it is unclear whether any EU country other than France is prepared to commit serious firepower to the region.

As ever in trade relations, Europe's two priorities are agriculture and cars. In both of these spheres, India has proved a very tough nut to crack.

On cars, India has 125 percent tariffs, and New Delhi has faced international flak for using high manufacturing tariffs along with its "Make in India" industrial program to try to boost domestic production rather than opening up to imports from the U.S. and EU. India's farmers are also a sensitive constituency. They are already filling the streets in major protests over domestic reforms, and would almost certainly oppose disruption from imports from European food producers.  

Jaishankar, however, dismissed these two as obstacles to a deal. When asked whether farmers and cars made India as unlikely to strike a deal now as in 2013, he said that was "obviously wrong … If that were the case, we could not have convinced the Commission and the 27 leaders that they should resume the discussion."

Nation in crisis

India's announcement of a diplomatic rapprochement with the EU has been one of the few pieces of positive news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is facing intense political pressure over his handling of the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in his country. Daily deaths have surpassed 4,000 and the prime minister is being criticized for allowing election rallies and a major religious festival, which are now feared to be superspreader events.

Jaishankar insisted he was "not in denial" about India’s approach, but argued that variants had been more virulent than expected and that mathematical modeling — both Indian and international — had not predicted such an explosion from 10,000 cases a day in February. India is now reporting more than 400,000 cases per day.

"It's very easy to say, ‘our guard should have been right up there,’ at 10,000 a day — the fact is that every society has this problem. When the numbers drop, there is a social attitude which goes with that."

Now facing a desperate need to double or triple vaccine production, India argues that patents should be waived on coronavirus vaccines. U.S. President Joe Biden supports this position, but European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel resolutely oppose the relaxation of intellectual property rights.  

Jaishankar made a renewed appeal that European opponents to the vaccine waiver should change their minds, but conceded patents were only a part of the puzzle.

"We feel [patents] cannot and should not be addressed with ‘business as normal’ … What we asking for is something temporary, something specific,” he said on the COVID-19 waiver. “We need to make it easier to produce, easier to produce both in terms of the regulatory and patents side, but also we need to make it easier to produce in terms of raw materials and the supply chain.”

He stressed one of his more immediate battles was the internal debate in India about accepting foreign aid again after not doing so since 2004. The minister made no apology that his priority was to now work with the international community.

“The politics is: ‘Oh, now you're taking foreign aid. It's against our policy to take foreign aid.’ Look, I am in the middle of COVID. I've never seen anything like this in my life. This is not the time for pride and precedent and political argumentation, if somebody is sending stuff which is relevant to COVID treatment, and I must say the EU has been very forthcoming in this regard.”

“At this moment, my eyes are on addressing the problem,” he added, stressing the country’s need for oxygen and the country’s shortage of the antiviral drug remdesivir.

When asked about India’s moves to censor some Twitter accounts in relation to the coronavirus epidemic — which has sparked concerns about deterioration of freedom of speech in India — Jaishankar said the move had been needed to safeguard public health.

“A lot of the Twitter accounts which were blocked were people who said: ‘Don’t wear masks,’ ‘Don’t take vaccines,’ who were criminal in their outlook, so who were sowing panic by posting fake photos.”

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On Europe Day, EU kicks off ‘conference’ on its future

Posted: 09 May 2021 11:03 AM PDT

Top EU leaders on Sunday presided over an inaugural ceremony for the Conference on the Future of Europe, kicking off a much-ballyhooed, yearlong, gabfest on the trajectory of the European Union that may, or may not, lead to revisions of the Union's organizing treaties.

The inaugural event, held symbolically on Europe Day, in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, was titled "The Future is In Your Hands" — a reference to leaders' hopes that the conference will gather the views and opinions of European citizens.

But on Sunday, the festivities were mostly in the hands of French President Emmanuel Macron, who used the ceremony to defend Strasbourg as the Parliament's formal seat, and to deliver a long, meandering speech on sovereignty and Europe's place among superpowers, including Russia, China and the United States.

In his remarks, Macron described Europe as an unfinished project, but superior to its largest rivals and allies, especially authoritarian regimes that stifle freedom. “They don’t have the same solidarity system,” he said, adding: “The criticism, the challenging, the fights, quarrels disagreements is what defines us, and it’s also what makes us more effective. It allows us to express criticism democratically.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged that the conference focus on real-life concerns and that participants remain open-minded, and welcoming of all views. "We must ensure it is not an intellectual policy exercise or a closed political compromise," von der Leyen said. "We should be honest that the conference is not a panacea or a solution to every problem. And we must listen to all voices — whether critical or complimentary — and ensure that we properly follow up on whatever is agreed."

Parliament President David Sassoli seized the chance to make an institutional power-play, and used his speech to urge that the Conference on the Future of Europe consider granting MEPs their long-sought right of legislative initiative, a power now wielded only by the Commission.

Sassoli also said the conference should not be afraid of pushing toward treaty changes, and that he hoped the conference would revisit the process by which the EU chooses its top officials, and endorse the "lead candidate" or Spitzenkandidat process, which EU heads of state and government cast aside in 2019 when they chose von der Leyen, then Germany's defense minister, for the EU’s top job.

"We should also increase the transparency of our elections and allow citizens to indicate their preferences for the presidency of the Commission," Sassoli said. "I hope that the conference will also address the question of the Spitzenkandidat, because I am convinced that this will contribute to the needs of citizens to be more involved in their European project and the better functioning of our institutions."

Many EU leaders have voiced apprehension at the prospect of making changes to the EU treaties, viewing it as a potentially fraught undertaking that could leave the EU bogged down in internal administrative wrangling. But Sassoli said there should be no fear.  

 "If all these reflections and those of our citizens involve an update of the treaties, we are courageous, we must not be afraid of them," he said, adding: "Today we cannot afford to have taboos. We must face this exercise freely and confidently through democratic debate."

Last-minute save

In a sign of the EU's many contradictions and paradoxes, the Conference on the Future of Europe last week nearly collapsed before it even started with senior officials involved in the project squabbling over how they would take any concluding decisions.

At virtually the last minute, Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's chair on the conference's executive board, proclaimed a tentative deal had been reached "after three rounds of very intensive negotiations." The inaugural, in the end, would not be a funeral.

But, in the end, it also wouldn't start on time.

After preliminary proceedings that included the VIPs signing the Parliament's "golden book," and white-gloved ushers directing participants to seats in a waiting room, there was an unexplained interregnum. The ceremony started at 2:20 p.m., 20 minutes late.

In any case, the ceremony offered a display of high-brow, cultural sophistication — classical music performances, and ample quotations of poetry — that have long served as hallmarks of the EU.

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, said that amid the terrible health and economic consequences of the pandemic, the start of the conference should be viewed as a sign of the EU's strength.

"This official launch of the Conference on the Future of Europe is a message of confidence in the future that we want to convey to all citizens," Costa said.

In a speech built around the interpretation of a poem by Luis de Camões, Costa urged a focus on social issues, including reducing youth unemployment, and protecting senior citizens, and he said that while Europe could reach for the Moon or Mars, it should prioritize the oceans.

"The EU must change to keep pace with the world," he said. "The strategic autonomy that we must pursue must be the autonomy of a Europe open to the world.

"We must take the lead in the major causes of humanity in our century," he added. "If Europe wants to be global, it cannot be confined to its continental dimension. The Portuguese presidency will propose that we work within the European Union on a global agenda for the oceans."  

Costa also took a moment to praise the EU’s existing treaty, named after his capital, Lisbon, and urged that the conference hear the voices of the people. “To build a future together with unity and natural diversity,” he said. “This Conference should therefore focus on the debate on the plural will of Europe’s citizens and not on negotiations between countries. This is a conference of citizens, by citizens and for citizens.”

Von der Leyen, who quoted the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in her speech in Strasbourg on Sunday, also said the conference should be viewed as an opportunity to bring the EU's institutions and politicians closer to the people they serve.

"We should also not underestimate the power of good that it could do — for people individually and for society as a whole," von der Leyen said. "The point is that the EU must be whatever Europeans want it to be."

Macron’s moment

A conference on the EU’s future was Macron’s idea originally, and he clearly hoped to use Sunday's festivities to promote Strasbourg. But his participation also highlighted the city's strange role.   

Unlike Costa, who represented the Council of the EU, Macron currently does not hold a formal EU position. And his presence, as leader of the "host country," was akin to Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo leading a ceremony at the Commission, or German Chancellor Angela Merkel claiming a role at a ceremony held at the European Central Bank.

Still, Macron inisted that Strasbourg was key to the EU's past and would be key to its future as well.

"Here we are gathered in Strasbourg on the 9th of May, which tells us a great deal about who we are, how we are going to work to shape ourselves," he said. "Strasbourg is the city of reconciliation after all, it is the living symbol of this Europe that said no to war, to build peace, to replace occupation with cooperation, to lift the worries of looking towards the borders, to breathe new confidence and friendship into European souls, that's what Strasbourg is all about."

Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed reporting.

Spain rings in end of coronavirus curbs with boisterous street parties

Posted: 09 May 2021 04:52 AM PDT

Spaniards took to the streets during the early hours of Sunday morning to celebrate the end of 202 days of nationwide coronavirus restrictions that had limited travel between regions, largely barred social gatherings and subjected citizens to curfews since last fall.

In scenes that recalled pre-COVID New Year’s Eve celebrations, thousands gathered in the central squares of most of the country’s cities to ring in the end of the “state of alarm” measures adopted by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government on October 25 last year.

Videos on social media showed groups of people drinking and singing in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, and in Seville local media reported that boisterous crowds broke out into a rendition of “Bella Ciao” as the restrictions expired at midnight. In Barcelona, a senior municipal offical said that local police had evicted 6,500 people from 31 different street parties, as drinking alcohol in the streets is prohibited in the city.

The Spanish government decreed the “state of alarm” in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the midst of the second wave that ravaged Europe last fall.

Shortly after enacting the measures, Sánchez set the goal of getting two-week infection rate below 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The figure hovered around 170 per 100,000 on Sunday, a little less than half of what it was when the decree was enacted last fall, and the government decided enough progress had been made in the fight against the pandemic to relax the rules.

The nationwide measures were harshly contested by conservative leaders like Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who insisted on keeping the capital’s bars and restaurants open and accused Sánchez of attempting to suppress citizens’ liberty with the restrictions.

Ayuso was reelected to a second term last week after a campaign largely focused on her opposition to the national government.

Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida condemned the street parties and reminded revelers that outdoor drinking was prohibited in Madrid, adding that “freedom is not defined by the breaking of rules.”

The power to impose further coronavirus-related measures now passes to regional administrations, leading to differing restrictions throughout the country: while an 11 p.m. curfew is still in place in Navarra, no such rule exists in the neighboring region of Aragón, for example.

The lifting of measures is expected to lead to an uptick in travel within Spain, where several regions had been sealed off for months in a bid to contain the virus. Online travel agency Rumbo.es reported that sales of vacation packages had shot up to 68 percent during the last week.

Brussels clashes

As in Spain, the easing of coronavirus restrictions in Belgium this weekend led to mass gatherings in cities like Brussels and Leuven on Saturday night, with thousands packing into restaurant and bar terraces that had been closed since the early fall.

Over 1,000 people gathered to party at Brussels’ in and around Place Flagey, setting off fireworks and reacting angrily when police attempted to clear the square during the early hours of Sunday morning. Only 10 people are meant to gather together outdoors, according to the latest Belgian rules.

Police charged the crowds and used a water cannon to disperse the revelers after officers were pelted with objects.

Belgium’s COVID-19 spokesperson Yves Van Laethem, comparing the celebrations to a champagne cork popping off a bottle, said effusive mass-gatherings were to be expected but added that such scenes “must not be repeated” if infection rates are to be kept low.
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