EU presidency urges Britain to ditch Brexit
Britain blames Russia
SOFIA, Feb 15, (Agencies): Bulgaria, which holds the presidency of the EU, on Thursday warned of poor progress in Brexit talks and told Britain it was still not too late to abandon its plan to quit the bloc.
Boyko Borisov, the Bulgarian prime minister, said he had so far seen nothing in the talks on Britain’s exit in March 2019 to give him hope for a good outcome.
The comments will come as a blow to British Prime Minister Theresa May as her senior ministers embark on a flurry of speeches to outline Britain’s ambitions for Brexit.
“I really hope that the talks on Brexit will take a turn, so that no damage will be incurred for anyone,” Borisov told reporters in Sofia, where EU foreign ministers are gathering for talks.
“I’m not a big optimist. So far I haven’t seen any progress than can really reassure me.”
The EU wants to finish talks on the post-Brexit transition period by the end of March so negotiations on future ties with Britain can start, but has warned that deadline could be pushed back if there is no progress from London. May’s government is battling deep divisions between Brexit moderates and hardliners as it prepares for crucial talks with Brussels over the future relationship, which start in April.
Talks to restore power-sharing collapse:
The latest round of talks to restore a power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland collapsed on Wednesday, prompting the former first minister to call on the British government to take control.
Arlene Foster, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader, said there was “no current prospect of these discussions leading to an executive being formed”.
“It is now incumbent upon Her Majesty’s government to set a budget and start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and infrastructure,” she said.
“Important decisions impacting on everyone in Northern Ireland have been sitting in limbo for too long.”
The devolved government in Belfast has been suspended since January 2017, when the Irish republican Sinn Fein party pulled out of the power-sharing arrangement with the pro-British DUP, citing a breakdown in trust.
Russian blamed for cyberattack:
Britain blamed the Russian government on Thursday for a cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe last year, accusing Moscow of “weaponizing information” in a new kind of warfare.
Foreign Minister Tariq Ahmad said “the UK government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyberattack of June 2017.”
The fast-spreading outbreak of data-scrambling software centered on Ukraine, which is embroiled in a conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the country’s east. It spread to companies that do business with Ukraine, including US pharmaceutical company Merck, Danish shipping firm A. P. Moller-Maersk and FedEx subsidiary TNT.
Ahmad said the “reckless” attack cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars.
British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Russia of “undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponizing information” with malicious cyberattacks.
“We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats,” Williamson said.
Danish defense minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said intelligence agencies in Britain, Denmark and elsewhere had uncovered the Russian responsibility.
Speaking at a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels, he said the hack was meant to cause damage and should “be compared with a military attack.”
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied Russia’s involvement.
“We categorically deny the accusations. We consider them unfounded and baseless and see them as continuation of groundless Russophobic campaign,” he said in a conference call with reporters.