European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to grant British Prime Minister Theresa May a new Brexit deadline of Oct. 31, diplomats told Reuters after French President Emmanuel Macron opposed summit efforts to give her another year.

Summit chair Donald Tusk tweeted that an extension had been agreed upon but gave no details as he went to brief May on the outcome and seek her necessary agreement to the deal.

The late-night deal means Britain will not crash out of the bloc on Friday and gives May more than the three months she had asked for to build a parliamentary majority behind the withdrawal treaty she negotiated with the EU last year.

But Macron’s push for a June Brexit, and strong opposition to other leaders’ preference for a much longer extension that might increase the chances of Britain changing its mind to stay in the bloc, meant the meeting ended up with the October compromise.

Oct. 31 would correspond to the end of the five-year mandate of the present EU Executive Commission.

Leaders would meet again in June, EU diplomats said, to assess the situation. Britain could have left by then if May succeeds in building a coalition for her deal with the Labour opposition — though there is no sign of agreement yet.

In order to continue as an EU member beyond June 1, May has agreed to organize British elections to the European Parliament on May 23, though it is still unclear if that vote will go ahead and how far it might turn into a virtual second referendum on EU membership that some hope could mean a British cancellation of Brexit.

Late-night wrangling

Other leaders had all but ruled out pitching Britain, and parts of the EU economy, into chaos on Friday. But a drive by Macron to keep London on a tight leash with an extension no longer than to June saw the emergency summit bogged down in late-night wrangling as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others argued the merits of granting up to a year.

As at a summit last month that put back Brexit for two weeks, several EU diplomats said May failed to persuade her peers that she could definitely break the paralysis of repeated failures to ratify the treaty within the coming months.

But Macron had told reporters on arrival that he was concerned that letting Britain stay in the bloc longer, notably if it takes part in elections to the European Parliament on May 23-26, posed a serious risk to the functioning of the Union.

“Nothing can be taken for granted,” the French president warned.

French officials said the EU faced “blackmail” by hard-line pro-Brexit potential successors to May, such as Boris Johnson. The thinking was that they might try to sabotage decision-making, so any longer EU membership must come with tighter commitments from Britain to play fair than were so far drafted into a summit accord.

An aide to Macron warned that France could even be ready to let Britain crash out without a treaty to avoid legal limbo and provide a transition to new trading terms: “Not everything is preferable to a no-deal. A no-deal situation is a real option.”

Laughter with Merkel

However, Merkel has urged the bloc to do all it can to avoid such disruption. She said before leaving Berlin that she favored a delay of “several months” for May, who has pledged to quit if hard-core Brexit supporters in her own Conservative Party drop objections to her “soft Brexit” and help ratify the deal.

Keen to ease tension, Merkel had broken the ice as talks began by showing May a photo montage on a tablet of both wearing similar jackets when addressing their parliaments earlier in the day. It provoked mutual laughter as other leaders joined in.

As talks wore on beyond midnight, with May patiently waiting elsewhere in the building for word on her nation’s fate, Macron rallied support for his concerns about a long extension.

May said on arrival that she did not want a long delay: “I want us to be able to leave the European Union in a smooth and orderly way as soon as possible,” she told reporters.

Her EU peers, however, are skeptical about her ability to break the deadlock soon and discussed a proposal by Tusk of a “flextension” of nine months to a year. This, some argued, could increase pressure on May’s pro-Brexit critics to back her deal rather than risk Brexit fizzling out.

EU leaders are exasperated with May’s handling of a tortuous and costly divorce that is a distraction from ensuring the bloc can hold its own against global economic challenges.

Across from the summit venue, the EU executive celebrated its part in funding a global project that produced the first picture of a black hole, prompting no shortage of ironic comments on social media about the juxtaposition.

Blogger Eliot Higgins tweeted: “We’re now more certain about what black holes look like than what Brexit looks like.”
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Just two days away from a potentially calamitous no-deal Brexit, European Union leaders were moving closer to granting the United Kingdom a new delay — possibly of up to a year — to its departure from the bloc.

British Prime Minister Theresa May headed Wednesday into an emergency EU summit, pleading for a second extension until June 30, but indicated she could accept a longer extension as many EU leaders have called for.

“What is important is that any extension enables us to leave at the point at which we ratify the withdrawal agreement,” May said as she arrived in Brussels. She added she was hopeful it could be as soon as May 22.

Most EU leaders indicated they could accept such an extension as long as Britain pledges not to use it to play an obstructionist course and undermine EU policies.

French president Emmanuel Macron was more critical, saying that no extension was guaranteed as long as there was no assurance that Britain would not upset EU policies during any transition.

“Nothing is decided,” Macron said upon arrival at the EU summit and insisted on “clarity” from May about what Britain wants, because, he said, “nothing should compromise the European project.”

According to the latest draft conclusions, Britain would be required to act “in a constructive and responsible manner throughout this unique period” of extended withdrawal, and would have to show “sincere cooperation.” It would have to act in “a manner that reflects its situation as a withdrawing member state.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU had “expectations” of Britain so that EU institutions can continue functioning “seamlessly.”

The issue came up after some British Conservative politicians threatened to become obstructionist. One of them, Mark Francois, said that if the U.K. remained in the bloc, “then in return we will become a Trojan Horse within the EU.”

If no extension materializes Wednesday, Britain would crash out of the bloc on Friday with no deal regulating the departure, unless it cancels Brexit independently. A drastic cliff-edge exit would bring huge costs to businesses and trade across the English Channel and be very cumbersome to travelers as it would likely hit airports, ports, tariff rules and standard regulations overnight.

EU countries, especially Macron’s France, have become increasingly exasperated with the political division and uncertainty in Britain about a way forward. In France, concerns have been growing about how badly a hard Brexit would hit the French economy.

Among conditions France is now setting to agree to a new delay: A “credible prospect” of some kind of solution to the British political deadlock; a promise that Britain won’t keep asking for more delays; and guarantees that Britain would not be involved in future EU decisions while its Brexit drama is playing out.

The bloc’s leaders have tried to help May over two years of negotiations, even after she missed her hand-picked Brexit departure date on March 29 because of a parliamentary revolt.

May’s future is uncertain whatever the EU decides.

She has previously said that “as prime minister” she could not agree to let Britain stay in the EU beyond June 30, and she has also promised to step down once Brexit is delivered.

Many Conservative Party lawmakers would like her to quit now and let a new leader take charge of the next stage of Brexit. But they can’t force her out until the end of the year, after she survived a no-confidence vote in December.

Every British initiative to get a deal so far has floundered. Several days of talks between May’s Conservative government and the main opposition Labour Party aimed at finding a compromise have failed to produce a breakthrough.

Labour favors a softer Brexit than the government has proposed, and wants to retain a close economic relationship with the bloc.

The two sides said they would resume their discussions after Wednesday’s EU summit.
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WikiLeaks has accused the Ecuadorian government of spying on founder Julian Assange.

The group’s editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, told a news conference Wednesday that Assange’s meetings with lawyers and a doctor had been secretly filmed by Ecuadorian authorities.

 

Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 and has been living there ever since.

Sweden has dropped an investigation into rape allegations against Assange, but he refuses to come out for fear of facing U.S. charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents. He faces arrest in Britain for jumping bail.

 

Ecuadorian officials say they will comment later on Assange’s allegation that he has been spied on. Relations between Assange and his Ecuadorian hosts have soured recently.
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Britain’s Standard Charter Bank has agreed to more than $1 billion in fines and forfeited assets to the U.S. and New York state for violating U.S. sanctions against trade with Iran.

Federal and state prosecutors said Tuesday that between 2007 and 2011, the global financial institution processed about 9,500 financial transactions worth about $240 million through U.S. financial institutions to benefit Iranian entities.

In addition, U.S. authorities said an unnamed former bank employee in the United Arab Emirates pleaded guilty in Washington to conspiring to defraud the U.S. and to violate the trade sanctions.

Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said the case “sends a clear message to financial institutions and their employees: If you circumvent U.S. sanctions against rogue states like Iran — or assist those who do — you will pay a steep price.”

He said that “when a global bank processes transactions through the U.S. financial system, its compliance program must be up to the task of detecting and preventing sanctions violations. And when it is not, banks have an obligation to identify, report and remediate any shortcomings.”

Jessie Liu, a prosecutor in Washington, said the bank, the unnamed former employee and Mahmoud Reza Elyassi, an Iranian national and former bank customer in Dubai, “undermined the integrity of our financial system and harmed our national security by deliberately providing Iranians with coveted access to the U.S. economy.” 

Elyassi has been charged with two criminal counts linked to the conspiracy.

The indictment in the case said Elyassi and his co-conspirators used general trading companies in the UAE as fronts for a money exchange business in Iran. 
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A group of Hungarian business leaders and politicians close to Prime Minister Viktor Orban have founded an international news agency in London whose coverage will focus on central and eastern Europe.

Orban’s associates have gained control over a large chunk of the Hungarian media in recent years and his Fidesz party has taken total control of state media, drawing international accusations that they are weakening freedom of speech.

However, Orban has been unable to control international news coverage, which has been far more critical of him than local media. The new agency’s early content suggests it is more sympathetic to him.

The new company, called V4NA, was registered in London by Hungary’s ambassador to the UK, Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky, on Dec. 31, 2018, according to company filings.

Last month, Arpad Habony, Orban’s main spin doctor and eminence grise, acquired a 40 percent stake in V4NA via his London political advisory firm, Danube Business Consulting Ltd. Subsequently, New Wave Media Group, owned by KESMA, a foundation that controls most of Hungary’s pro-government media, acquired a 57 percent stake from Szalay-Bobrovniczky.

Despite its huge role in the Hungarian media market, KESMA was exempted from regulatory scrutiny last year on grounds that it was a strategic national asset.

V4NA’s name reflects a focus on the Visegrad Four countries — Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. It plans more coverage of other centres in the run-up to European Parliament elections due in May.

“Our team of 50 journalists and rapid-response news teams are on location where the leading stories happen in Europe: London, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bratislava, Warsaw,” the agency says on its web site, V4NA.com.

Most of the site’s content is behind a paywall, but the selection of front-page headlines resonates with the populism of Orban, one of the fiercest critics of immigration to Europe.

“Migrant kills wife after she converts to Christianity,” says one headline from Monday. A report about Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s League, anti-immigrant interior minister and ally of Orban, was headlined “Salvini: Citizens should control Europe.”

“Hungarian minister on EP elections: Hungarian votes also matter” and “Immigration is a war of cultures and civilizations” were headlines that borrowed directly from Orban’s rhetoric.

In an emailed statement, V4NA said it offered a “conservative, right-wing perspective” on European news. It did not answer questions about its relations with Hungary’s government or its business plans.

KESMA did not immediately reply to Reuters’ questions.

Habony could not be reached for comment.
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Police have moved in to stop a scuffle between supporters of rival candidates in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stars in a widely popular TV sitcom about a schoolteacher turned president, easily beat President Petro Poroshenko in the first round on March 31. Zelenskiy garnered 30% of the vote, while Poroshenko won just under 16%, and a runoff between them is set for April 21.

Supporters of Zelenskiy and Poroshenko clashed Tuesday in front of Zelenskiy’s campaign headquarters in Kyiv, as they tried to wrest campaign posters from each other. Police quickly intervened, detaining two people.

Zelenskiy’s office said he wasn’t in the building when the brawl occurred.

Ahead of the vote, Zelenskiy and Poroshenko are to hold a debate in in Kyiv’s Olimpiskiy Stadium, Ukraine’s biggest arena.
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The European Commission says Facebook has changed the fine print in its terms of service to clearly explain that it makes money by selling access to users’ data.

The social media giant modified its terms after discussions with the commission and consumer protection authorities.

 

European Union Consumer Commissioner Vera Jourova said Tuesday, “Now users will clearly understand that their data is used by the social network to sell targeted ads.”

 

EU authorities stepped up scrutiny of Facebook’s terms after the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, in which the data on 87 million Facebook users was allegedly improperly harvested.

 

The changes are part of broader global efforts to rein in social media companies amid concerns about privacy breaches, harmful content and other online abuses.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May meets the leaders of Germany and France on Tuesday in a last-gasp bid to keep her country from crashing out of the European Union later this week.

Her huddles with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and President Emmanuel Macron in Paris come on the eve of another tension-packed summit in Brussels focused on the fate of the 46-year-old partnership.

May asked EU leaders on Friday to delay Brexit until June 30 to give her time to strike a compromise with the opposition that lets Britain’s hung parliament back an orderly divorce plan on the fourth attempt.

But the 27 European leaders have already signed off on one extension — the original deadline was March 29 — and have serious doubts that May will somehow break through the political gridlock now.

“We are in a very, very frustrating situation here,” said Germany’s Minister for European Affairs Michael Roth, as he and fellow EU officials arrived for Luxembourg talks on the eve of the summit.

Roth’s French counterpart Amelie de Montchalin told reporters that “we want to understand what the UK needs this extension for, and what are the political surroundings around Theresa May to have this extension”.

“And then comes the question of the conditions of what role we’d want the UK to play during this extension time,” she added.

Some in the EU are worried that if Britain accepts a long delay, its representatives could disrupt EU budget planning and reforms during indefinite Brexit talks, potentially causing more problems than a messy “no-deal Brexit”.

“We’d need a strong political reason to delay,” a diplomat from this camp said.

EU Council president Donald Tusk’s office last week floated a compromise proposal that gives Britain a “flexible” extension of up to a year — which ends earlier should some way forward emerge in London.

But a diplomatic source insisted that this was “Mr Tusk’s position, not the position of the Council”.

Merkel takes a more conciliatory approach backed by EU member Ireland — a crucial player whose politically sensitive border with Britain’s Northern Ireland is holding up May’s deal in parliament.

“I will do everything in order to prevent a no-deal Brexit,” Merkel said Friday.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Paralysis and disarray

The diplomatic disarray in Brussels is mirrored by political paralysis in London that has forced May to promise to resign as soon as she gets this first stage of Brexit over the line.

The weakened British leader had been hoping to come to Brussels with either her deal approved or some sort of alternative way forward drafted that could convince the likes of Macron.

But her talks with the opposition Labour Party have made no tangible progress and seem unlikely to find common ground before she flies to Brussels seeking a second delay in three weeks.

“The problem is that the government doesn’t seem to be moving off the original red lines,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Monday.

The government will instead present a plan to parliament Tuesday to outline how long it intends to delay Brexit.

This is part of legislation passed into law late Monday to force May to postpone Brexit if the only other alternative is a no-deal scenario.

May’s talks with Labour have stumbled over Corbyn’s demand that Britain join some form of European customs arrangement once the sides formally split up.

EU officials are ready to include such a promise in the outline of a future relationship, which was agreed with May alongside the withdrawal deal.

But May knows that the prospect of close post-Brexit economic relations could further fracture her government and party ahead of possible snap elections.

Almost any form of European customs arrangement would keep Britain from striking its own global trade agreement and leave one of the biggest advantages of Brexit unfulfilled.

 

 
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and EU institution leaders meet in Brussels on Tuesday for an annual EU-China summit set to be overshadowed by differences over trade and investment.

After years of offering free access to its markets, the European Union has said it is losing patience with Beijing over the pace of liberalizing reforms. It also has growing concerns over state-led Chinese companies’ dominance of some EU markets and acquisitions of strategic industries.

Like the United States, many EU countries want to crack down on industrial subsidies and forced technology transfers, although prefer dialogue to the trade war Washington has triggered.

The European Commission set out a 10-point action plan last month, seeing scope for greater cooperation in fields such as climate change, but demanding greater reciprocity, such as access for EU firms to Chinese public tenders.

“The old narrative is absolutely obsolete,” Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told Reuters.

Beijing and Brussels have been wrestling for weeks over the text of a joint declaration to be presented as the fruit of Tuesday’s summit between Li and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council chief Donald Tusk.

“China aims to have a feel-good summit, whereas we aim to have a meaningful summit, with a meaningful outcome,” Peter Berz, acting Asia director at the Commission’s trade section, told the European Parliament last week.

EU diplomats said on Monday negotiators had made some progress, but were still short of an agreed text. Talks would continue until the summit, due to start at 1 p.m.

China points to a new foreign investment law due to take effect at the start of 2020. It includes provisions to ban forced technology transfers and ensure foreign companies have access to public tenders.

EU officials say the law lacks detail and question how effective it will be in reality in protecting foreign firms.

Li wrote in a German newspaper on Monday that China wanted to work with the European Union on issues including trade and denied Beijing was trying to split the bloc by investing in eastern European states. 
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Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu was officially charged with crimes against humanity by the country’s top prosecutor on Monday as it finalized an inquiry into the chaotic and bloody anti-Communist revolution of 1989.

Iliescu, 89, has repeatedly said he was innocent. He enjoyed widespread popularity after the revolt against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was deposed and executed in December 1989. But hundreds of people died in the ouster and Iliescu’s opponents accused him of stealing the revolution from the people.

“The completion of this case by our military prosecutors, is one of the most important goals in the management project I assumed publicly three years ago: to solve Romania’s historical files,”General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar told reporters. No date was set for trial.

Tuesday’s official indictment came after prosecutors accused Iliescu last December of masterminding the formation of a group in December 1989, with the aim of gaining power and political legitimacy.

Prosecutors said using statements and television the group engaged in “broad and complex misleading activities of diversion and misinformation” after Ceausescu fled the capital on Dec. 22, 1989.

Under the scheme, a general “terrorism psychosis” was fueled, triggering “fratricidal fire, chaotic shootings and contradictory military orders,” that led to the death of 862 people and the wounding of another 2,150 after Ceausescu left.

About 13 million bullets were used by troops. The conviction and hastily assembled execution of Ceausescu and his wife Elena was also part of the scheme pursued “in a simulated criminal trial,” on Dec. 25, 1989, prosecutors said.

Iliescu was confirmed as interim president by a temporary parliament in February 1990. As candidate of the National Salvation Front, he won 85 per cent of a ballot in May 1990, an overwhelming vote of confidence in a man who had stepped into the spotlight only five months earlier in the confusion of revolution.

His critics at home and abroad accuse Iliescu, who stepped down in 2004, and other leading politicians of trying to block reform and protect the political heritage and ruling elite of the Communist system.

Iliescu, the Moscow-educated son of a railwayman, is also on trial together former prime minister Petre Roman on charges of crimes against humanity over the crushing of peaceful anti-government protests in Bucharest in June 1990 in which four people were killed.

Last week, he underwent heart surgery. Doctors said he was in stable condition.

Before Ceausescu’s overthrow, Iliescu had at one point been youth minister and an official in the Communist Party but fell foul of Ceausescu after the dictator became impressed with the Chinese example during a 1968 visit to Beijing. He reacquired ministerial rank as head of Prices Commission but his star declined in 1984 after an argument with one of Ceausescu’s relatives.
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