The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Juncker’s vision of a stronger EU after Brexit
In his state of the European Union address, European Commission president JeanClaude Juncker was dismissive of the UK and Brexit.
He used his speech to set out a vision of a federalist Europe, to which national power would be ceded and where all the players would commit to the euro and control by the European Central Bank.
Without Brexit, this is a vision of the future the UK would never have accepted – and it remains to be seen whether it can survive Juncker’s departure in 2019, just after Brexit happens.
In his speech he confirmed that the EU would pursue an aggressive trade policy, seeking to build on a major free trade deal with Japan with similar deals with Australia, New Zealand, South America and others.
This is part of a plan to drive eurozone economic growth. But each trade deal the EU secures adds to the pressure on the UK to have similar arrangements in place after Brexit.
As the EU moves closer to the time when it will have to make a decision on the future of glyphosate, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has confirmed the product has no endocrine disrupting properties.
This is a peer reviewed study and it was judged against standards set by the World Health Organisation, which first raised concerns about glyphosate.
This should ease the way for member states to approve a 10-year re-licensing of the product, which the most widely used herbicide in Europe.
Conversely, if member states reject this proposal, the EFSA report will be further ammunition for a legal challenge to the EU. This would be on grounds that it is blocking a decision on political rather than scientific grounds.
The Commission proposal to re-license the product is on the agenda for a meeting of member state experts in early October and a decision must be taken by the end of the year.
Farmers may be able to claim compensation for losses as a result of the fipronil egg scandal, but only if they can prove they are innocent victims of the use of the illegal insecticide.
The Commission says this will only happen after a full economic assessment of the impact at member state level.
At a meeting to review the crisis, the food safety commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis defended the effectiveness of the rapid alert system after accusations that some member states tried to cover up the fipronil contamination, before they were forced to disclose it to Brussels.