Nikos Skoutaris via Macropolis | Last Wednesday, 9 months after the Brexit referendum took place, Theresa May triggered Article 50 TEU. The following day, the Government announced legislation to end authority of EU law, while on Friday the President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk released the draft guidelines for the Brexit negotiations.
All European Union members except the UK are meeting today in Rome to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the so considered seed of their club: The treaty of Rome. An event with a bittersweet taste however since the participants will start designing a common strategy on Brexit, the first exit of a member state.
Of all the problems thrown up by Brexit, one of most emotionally charged is the impact it will have on foreigners living in the UK and British citizens living abroad. The other evening in Madrid at a forum on the implications of Brexit, I got a glimpse of the strength of feeling that it generates among the British community in Spain (estimated at around 300,000) and the Spanish community in the UK believed to be around 200,000.
By end March, the UK will trigger the nuclear button splitting it from the European Union. A landmark decision which will determine both parties’ future, irrespective of the side of the English Channel they find themselves on.
Construction in Europe grew by 2 percent in 2016. Annual growth in the sector is expected to continue at around this rate for the next three years until the end of 2019, according to calculations by the Euroconstruct research network. The strongest stimuli will come from new residential construction, which grew by a good 7 percent in 2016.
The UK Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday the government’s argument that May could simply alone to invoke Article 50 to begin two years of divorce talks. Considering conservative majority in Parliament that passing a bill should not force PM to reconsider her “hard brexit” plans. Dissenting MPs can successfully amend the bill to increase scrutiny over negotiations.
If Theresa May could deliver on the proposals in her speech the UK would not see a ‘ hard Brexit ’. PM May suggested, to our mind, a ‘ cherry picking approac.Furthermore, PM May did not address the divorce bill the EU has said it will see.
Last year, IAG transported 100.67 million passengers (+14%) and improved its occupancy rate to 81.6%, (+0.2%), thanks to a good performance from its routes to Europe and North America.
Demetrios Pogkas via Macropolis | Following British Parliament’s recent backing of the government’s plans to start Brexit talks in the coming months, the exit of Britain from the European Union is a step closer to becoming a reality.
We can expect a rise in interest rates in 2017, driven up by the Fed, but fuelled by doubts over Europe. And I would bet the dollar will appreciate against the euro and the yuan – and sterling – although I am not normally a betting man.