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Guilty pleasures
De morgen speaks to three Flemish citizens who share the same guilty pleasure: Brexit news. Gilles Supply says he enjoys streaming debates in the House of Commons more than Netflix. He also says his favourite 'Brexit character' is Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser. Jokes aside, he also thinks Brexit is a serious matter that will have heavy consequences for Europe. For Nele Van den Broeck, who spends an hour a day listening to podcasts about Brexit, the divorce has become a gossip obsession. While she perceives Brexit news as far more relaxing than news about climate change, she admits that she finds the 'take back control'-debate unsettling. After having lived in the UK for some years, she suddenly feels like one of "the foreigners that take away jobs from the British people", as Boris Johnson would put it. Meanwhile, Davy Delbeke says he got hooked to Brexit news during the Theresa May saga, when he started feeling genuinely sorry for her. Brexit now seems to him like a theatre play where the audience is impatiently waiting for the curtain to fall.
The article in Dutch: ‘Ik luister elke dag minstens een uur naar podcasts over de brexit’
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Brexit gone sour
The Irish Times runs an article on how farmers’ groups and milk suppliers in Northern Ireland and the Republic have called for clarification on how food processed in each other’s markets will be treated under the new Brexit deal. With the current arrangements, Northern Ireland will practically fall under EU customs rules, yet legally remain in the UK market. Farmers insist on clarification for beef export travelling across the border. They also worry about what will happen to Northern milk that goes to the Republic to be processed, wondering whether or not it can be labelled as an Irish/EU product. Northern Irish farmers argue that if their produce, to be processed in the Republic, could not be treated as EU product, they will not benefit from EU trade deals. The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association have called for longer post-Brexit transition period which currently ends on 31 December 2020. The president of the IFA has expressed concerns about the uncertainty which farmers will face at the end of the transition period.
The article in English: Farmers call for clarification around customs and food products
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Running out of time
While EU ambassadors are set to decide what length of Brexit extension to grant the UK, Spiegel writes how pushing back the exit date would increase the risk of a no-deal Brexit as it reduces the time left for the transition period. While Brexit has been postponed several times, the end date of the transition phase remains unchanged: 31 December 2020. If there is no trade agreement with the EU by then, which is a likely scenario, the UK would, according to the new withdrawal agreement, crash out of the EU's customs union and single market. A postponement of the transition period end date is unlikely, however, as the UK Parliament has no say in this decision. Collecting views from the European Parliament, the article quotes the MEP Seb Dance who says Boris Johnson's deal is just a short-cut to a no-deal Brexit. While some MEPs are calling for a generous extension, to give the UK more time to sort itself out, others say they will refuse to support the Brexit deal without reviewing it in detail.
The article in German: Warum das No-Deal-Risiko ausgerechnet mit dem Brexit-Deal steigt
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A lesson on democracy
In a piece for Rzeczpospolita, Jan Zielonka, Oxford University professor of European Politics, presents his concerns about the future of Europe and democracy in the context of Brexit, which he defines as a tragicomedy that only lawyers and satirists will benefit from. He calls the national agreement that is Brexit a pipe dream, where fighting camps do not accept a result other than what they believe. He also sees Brexit as a sign of weakness of the UK's parliamentary democracy. What was supposed to be an example of how to restore a parliament with sovereignty and glory quickly turned out to be the greatest flaw of Westminster. Lastly, Zielonka concludes that Brexit shows how politics is moving to the local level whereas power is becoming more centralised, which is shown by the divide between the British government in London and local communities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. He perceives this phenomenon also in other countries, from Spain to Latvia, not to mention the US.
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