Monday 30 April 2018

EU news in April 2018

What happened in the European Union in April?
The United Kingdom is now paying more than it is receiving from the EU. Since the country is going to leave the EU, what should happen? Who will pay the 12 to 14 billion euro gap? Some think the EU's budget should be smaller - especially those that pay more than receive, like the UK now. Like the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Austria. Others think everyone should pay more. For example Germany and France (read more).


The budget Commissioner © EU, 2018 / photo: Jure Makovec

But the negotiations start with a budget proposition for many years from the European Commission (the EU's government). In this case, a budget from 2021 to 2027. On Wednesday 2 May, the Commission will propose it. After this proposition is made, the European Parliament and the EU countries will negotiate for a very long time. The Commission hopes to have the EU budget 2021-2027 ready by the elections in May 2019 (read more).

The European Parliament can invite political leaders for a chat. This time, France's president came. He said he wanted to work more closely together (read more, see the full videos here). But not all the leaders of the EU countries agree. For example, the Polish Foreign Minister wants more power for the EU countries and less for the central organisations like the Commission (read more).

In the Brexit negotiations, the main negotiator for the EU said there should be a real solution for the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. But the negotiators aren't agreeing by when. If there is no solution, Ireland and Northern Ireland will have difficulties to do business together. Now, there is no real border. So it would be strange for everyone if from one day to another, you will have border controls to get just across the border (read more).

Sexual harassment has been in the news for a while. But it doesn't only happen in Hollywood. That is why the EU has a specialised agency to fight it. Some of their employees made complaints at the agency... about being sexually harassed at the agency. Shame on you (read more)!


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