Europe

23 February 2020; AFP: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said he was "not sure" it would be possible for the European Union and Britain to reach a trade deal by the end of the year.

Britain and the EU are about to embark on negotiations aiming to hammer out a trade agreement by the time the post-Brexit transition period shuts at the end of December.

But France has made clear it thinks the negotiations will be particularly difficult, especially in such a tight timeframe.

ATHENS (Reuters) - France will stand by Greece and Cyprus, supporting both in their disputes with Turkey over maritime zones in the Mediterranean, French Defence Minister Florence Parly was quoted saying in a Greek newspaper on Sunday.

Greece and Turkey are at odds over a host of issues ranging from mineral rights in the Aegean Sea to ethnically split Cyprus. Tensions are also running high because of Turkish drilling off Cyprus and the European Union has prepared sanctions against Turkey in response.

PARIS (Reuters) - Former French prime minister Francois Fillon and his wife Penelope go on trial on Monday over a fake jobs scandal that wrecked his 2017 run for president and opened the Elysee Palace door for Emmanuel Macron.

Fillon’s bid for the presidency unraveled after allegations he paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros for doing little, if any, work as his parliamentary assistant.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - More than 2,000 Hungarians, including Roma families and civil groups, marched to parliament on Sunday to protest against the government’s refusal to pay compensation to Roma children who had been unlawfully segregated in a school in eastern Hungary.

Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has come under fire from the European Union for his perceived erosion of the rule of law, suggested the state should disobey court orders to pay compensation to Roma children in the village of Gyongyospata and provide training instead.

(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit team has been ordered to come up with plans to “get around” the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit withdrawal agreement, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Officials in Taskforce Europe, which is run by David Frost, the prime minister’s European Union negotiator, are seeking to evade Irish Sea checks on goods passing from Britain to Northern Ireland, according to the newspaper.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain criticized the European Union on Sunday over the process of agreeing on its negotiating mandate for post-Brexit trade talks, saying the bloc was “hamstrung by indecision and delay” because different members wanted different things.

The outcome of the talks between Britain and the EU, its biggest trading partner, will define how the $2.7 trillion British economy develops following its departure from the EU.

PRAGUE, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Saturday blamed wealthier European Union (EU) member states for the failure of this week's EU budget summit, which ended without an agreement.

"I find it unfair. The position of the four rich countries led by the Netherlands actually blocked the EU summit," Babis said in a tweet, calling the proposals from wealthier member states "unacceptable".

PARIS, Feb 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “not sure” it would be possible for the European Union and Britain to reach a trade deal by the end of the year.

Britain and the EU are about to embark on negotiations aiming to hammer out a trade agreement by the time the post-Brexit transition period shuts at the end of December.

But France has made clear it thinks the negotiations will be particularly difficult, especially in such a tight timeframe.

LONDON, Feb 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — London police said that they had charged a 29-year-old man in the stabbing of a prayer leader at a mosque in Park Road.

Daniel Horton, 29, charged with section 18 GBH and possession of a bladed article, appeared in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Feb 22, Police said.

Raafat Maglad, 70, the prayer leader who was stabbed around the top of his shoulder by the attacker, said that he did not hate his attacker and felt sorry for him.

FESSENHEIM (France), Feb 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French state-owned energy giant EDF on Saturday began shutting down the country’s oldest nuclear power plant after 43 years in operation.

EDF said it had disconnected one of two reactors at Fessenheim, along the Rhine near France’s eastern border with Germany and Switzerland, at 2am in the first stage of the complete closure of the plant.

The second reactor is to be taken off line on June 30 but it will be several months before the two have cooled enough and the used fuel can start to be removed.