Britain all set to leave EU. What next for the country and its people?

Britain leaves the EuropeanUnion on Friday, ending more than four decades of economic, political and legal integration with its closest neighbours.
But things will feel the same for many months, owing to a transition period intended to allow both sides time to agree the terms of their future partnership.

Three Brexit deadlines came and went before the British parliament finally ratified the divorce agreement.
Britain is to leave the European Union at 23:00 GMT on Friday, 43 months after the country voted in a June 2016 referendum to leave the EU.
Nothing will change for most people in Britain thanks to the transition period, which preserves the status quo until at least December 31, 2020.
But Britain will lose its representation and voting rights in the EU institutions. This includes having no British members of the European Parliament.
Britain says it is ready to start trade talks on February 1, but EU members states are still discussing what they want from the negotiations.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to flesh out his ideas for a free trade agreement along the lines of a recent EU deal with Canada, in a speech in early February.
The EU mandate could be approved by national ministers on February 25, officials in Brussels suggest, which would mean talks could begin around March 1.
Britain is hoping to open trade talks with the United States and other non-EU countries around the same time.
Trade is not the only issue that must be resolved with Brussels, however. Britain and the EU closely cooperate on security and law enforcement, education and energy among many other issues.
The transition period is scheduled to last until December 31, 2020.
Britain can ask to extend this for one or two years, but must inform the EU of its request by July 1.
Johnson insists he will not do this, saying that Britain must be free of EU rules and regulations as soon as possible.
Without an extension or a trade agreement, relations between Britain and the EU will be severed at the end of 2020.
A new deal would allow the two sides to embark on a new partnership.
Failure to agree would see cross-Channel trade, transportation and a multitude of other ties severely disrupted overnight.

EU nations agree to Brexit extension until January 31: Donald Tusk

The European Union on Monday agreed a 3-month flexible delay to departure from the bloc as Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushes for an election after opponents forced him to request an extension he had vowed never to ask for.
Just three days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31 at 2300 GMT, Brexit is hanging in the balance as British politicians are no closer to reaching a consensus on how, when or even if the divorce should take place.

Johnson, who became prime minister by pledging - "do or die" - to deliver Brexit on Oct. 31, was driven into requesting a postponement after he was defeated in parliament over the sequencing of the ratification of his divorce deal.
The 27 countries that will remain in the EU after Brexit agreed on Monday to put off Brexit until the end of January with an earlier departure possible should the faction-ridden UK parliament ratify their separation deal.
"The EU27 has agreed that it will accept the UK's request for a Brexit 'flextension' until 31 January 2020," European Council President Donald Tusk said in a tweet, referring to the idea of a "flexible extension".
But EU member states will need Britain to formally respond to its offer of a 3-month delay to Brexit before launching a "written procedure" whereby governments will have 24 hours to accept or reject the delay.
"We can only launch the written procedure when we have the agreement of the UK government on the text," said a senior EU official.
Two senior EU diplomats confirmed that the written procedure period agreed was 24 hours, effective from the time London accepts the offer of a Brexit delay from Oct. 31 to Jan. 31.
Britain's departure has already been delayed twice - from March 29 and April 12 - after Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, failed three times to get her deal ratified by parliament.
With British politics still paralysed over carrying out Brexit 3-1/2 years after a 52%-48% referendum vote in favour of Leave, Johnson is demanding parliament approve an election on Dec. 12 in return for more time to adopt his deal.
But he needs the support of two-thirds of the 650 lawmakers for a new election. A House of Commons vote is due later on Monday.
"FLEXTENSION"
The EU, forged from the ruins of World War Two as a way to prevent another devastating conflict in Europe, is fatigued by Britain's Brexit crisis but keen not to be held responsible for an economically tumultuous "no-deal" Brexit.
French President Emmanuel Macron had been the main hurdle to an extension, arguing there had to be a good reason for a delay and that the British needed to break their own political deadlock. But a source close to Macron said the prospect of an election in Britain had strengthened significantly.
The source stressed that the third Brexit delay would come with conditions, including a refusal to renegotiate the divorce agreement and giving a green light to other EU countries to meet without Britain to discuss the bloc's future.
The latest delay plan envisages that Britain could be out on Dec. 1 or Jan. 1 should parliament ratify the agreement in November or December, respectively, according to diplomats who deal with Brexit in Brussels.
The EU will state that the extension, the third granted so Britain can sort out the details of its departure, will not be used to renegotiate the divorce treaty again, and that London should not impede other essential work by the EU on projects ranging from budgets to climate policies.

Rebel with a cause plots ruin of UK PM Boris Johnson's big Brexit day

Fearing Britain could drop out of the European Union without a deal by design or default, one British lawmaker has threatened to deny Prime Minister Boris Johnson his day of Brexit glory by delaying a vote on a last-minute divorce deal.
Oliver Letwin, 63, is a former cabinet minister with a reputation as an unofficial fixer, using his affable manner and procedural knowledge to head off awkward disagreements in parliament. Brexit has given him notoriety as a rebel with a cause: to stop a no-deal Brexit.

The first Saturday sitting of parliament for 37 years was supposed to frame the approval of Johnson’s EU divorce deal, but Letwin, expelled by Johnson from the Conservative Party, may have snared the prime minister in a legislative booby-trap.
In a move that indicates the level of suspected perfidy that runs through both sides of the Brexit schism, Letwin proposed a 26-word amendment that, he says, removes any chance of a no-deal Brexit by deferring a decision on Johnson’s deal.
The Letwin amendment potentially turns Johnson’s Brexit finale on its head by leaving the prime minister exposed to a humiliating obligation to ask the EU for a delay until the end of January 2020. The tension between the two men was on display on the floor of parliament, a 19th-century gothic palace.
Fixing his eyes on Letwin, Johnson said: “This is a momentous occasion for our country and our parliament, and it would be a great shame if the opportunity to have a meaningful vote ... were to be taken away from us.”
Letwin, standing in the debating chamber clutching a sheaf of parliamentary papers, looked on impassively. Lawmakers will vote on Letwin’s proposal later on Saturday. If approved, Johnson’s deal will not be voted upon, and he will be obliged by a law passed by his opponents to write to the EU to request a delay.
‘SIMPLE AS THAT!’
Letwin was one of 21 Conservatives expelled from the party in September for not supporting Johnson’s pledge to leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, and he has focused his parliamentary acumen on preventing a no-deal Brexit.
Letwin said he supports Johnson’s deal but wants to close a loophole whereby hardline Brexit supporters could support the deal on Saturday but then block the legislation needed to implement it, leaving Britain on course for a disorderly exit at the end of the month.
“My aim is to ensure that Boris’s deal succeeds, but that we have an insurance policy which prevents the UK from crashing out on 31 October by mistake if something goes wrong during the passage of the implementing legislation,” Letwin said in a note explaining his proposal.
“Simple as that!”
Letwin says parliamentary approval for the deal, required in order to ratify it, should be withheld until the government has passed the legislation needed to implement the exit agreement.
The proposal is so dangerous for Johnson because it unites a diverse section of lawmakers who oppose Brexit altogether or want a second referendum with those who support leaving with a deal, but not without a deal - a coalition that looks likely to command majority support.
While the motivation of the amendment is fear of Brexit betrayal, the proposal has stoked a similar mistrust among supporters of Brexit who see a plot to sink it in a legislative quagmire.
“It’s a wrecking amendment, hiding behind the transparent veneer of opposing a no-deal outcome in the hope of giving the Remain Parliament an opportunity to force through a second referendum,” Conservative Brexit supporter Andrew Bridgen said.

You tax our wine, we'll hit back, says EU's Tusk on new US tariffs

Europe’s G-7 Stance Shaped by Trump
European Council President Donald Tusk set out the EU’s stall for the summit, making it clear that the bloc opposed many of the positions put forward by US President Donald Trump. In a news conference before the start of the summit, Tusk warned the American president that Europe didn’t share his views on issues ranging from Iran to trade to Russia.

"Trade wars will lead to recessions" and "trade wars among G-7 members will lead to an eroding of the already weakened trust among us," Tusk said.
He said Trump’s rejection of the nuclear deal with Iran "hasn’t brought about any positive results" and the move played into the hands of the Iranian regime as well as Russia and China. The EU will push once again for consensus on the Iran agreement, Tusk added.
Russia won’t be invited back in the G-7 fold, Tusk said, in a direct rebuff to Trump. He recalled the US leader’s suggestion that Russia snatching Crimea from Ukraine was acceptable. "Under no condition can we agree on this logic," Tusk said, adding provocatively that he’d like to see Ukraine invited to a G-7 summit rather than Russia. Next year’s meeting will be hosted by Trump in the US
EU Will Retaliate If Trump Targets French Wine
The EU will “respond in kind” if Trump announces tariffs on French wine, Tusk said at his press conference ahead of the talks which begin on Saturday evening.
Trump has threatened tariffs on wine in retaliation for a French digital tax that affects US internet giants, casting the French as the aggressors. But Tusk suggested the EU will see tax and tariffs as separate issues.
“France can count on our loyalty,” Tusk said.
Trump mused at a recent fundraiser about a 100% tariff on French wine, though it’s not clear how serious he was.

European telecom industry to take $62 bn hit if Chinese cos banned from 5G

Excluding China’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp from the next generation of mobile networks would lumber European phone companies with 55 billion euros ($62 billion) in extra costs, the wireless industry’s main lobby group said.
A global ban advocated by US President Donald Trump would also delay the rollout of the high-speed 5G networks by at least 18 months and deprive the European Union of around 45 billion euros in productivity growth, according to a preliminary report drafted in April by the GSMA trade association and seen by Bloomberg.

“The need to replace network equipment and the capacity constraints on the remaining mobile equipment vendors would disrupt current rollout plans,” the report said. “Such a delay would widen the gap in 5G penetration between the EU and the US by more than 15 percentage points by 2025.”
US efforts to isolate the Chinese vendors amid a trade conflict with Beijing have thrown the global telecom industry’s network upgrade plans into confusion as Huawei is one of the biggest suppliers of the core infrastructure and radio access equipment and the second-largest producer of smartphones behind Samsung Electronics Co.
Some US allies have already followed Washington’s lead in excluding Huawei, heeding warnings that its equipment is vulnerable to hacking and espionage by the Chinese state.
Outright bans on Huawei appear unlikely in Europe, the region it relies on most for growth outside China, after Germany, France and Britain signaled more limited restrictions and tightened oversight of their networks.
The GSMA report was written before President Trump opened a new front against the Shenzhen-based vendor last month by restricting its access to Google’s Android operating system for its 5G smartphones, potentially disrupting their ability to function or access popular apps.
“We continue to stress that it is imperative that the market has the widest possible choice of equipment, technology and partners, to drive, scale innovation and competition,” a GSMA spokeswoman said.

Theresa May requests EU's Donald Tusk to delay Brexit until June 30

Prime Minister Theresa May has written to European Council President Donald Tusk to request a delay to the UK’s departure from the bloc until June 30.
May cited talks with opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn aimed at breaking the Brexit impasse as a reason for further delay in the letter, which was released by her office on Friday.

“It is frustrating that we have not yet brought this process to a successful and orderly conclusion,” May wrote. “The UK government remains strongly committed to doing so."
With her options dwindling, May is desperately seeking to get an agreement through Parliament that would allow the UK to leave the EU without having to take part in European elections next month. Unable to convince her allies to back her own deal -- Parliament has rejected it on three separate occasions -- she’s turned to Corbyn for help.
Tusk was earlier said to favour offering the UK a one-year extension to its EU membership to help the prime minister, but some governments opposed such a long delay, officials said.
Tusk, who chairs summits of EU leaders, wants the bloc to give London as long as possible to find a solution to the deadlock caused by members of Parliament failing to back the divorce deal the prime minister struck in November. The year-long extension would include an escape clause to allow the UK to leave the EU early when the deal is approved.
The EU’s remaining 27 leaders, who meet May in Brussels for a summit on Wednesday, have to agree on any offer unanimously and it’ll be up to them to forge a common position. France is leading a small group of countries opposing a long extension, but officials said they don’t expect any leader to veto a delay outright. May will write to Tusk requesting a delay on Friday, a UK official said.
The EU has previously said any long extension would be conditional on a “clear plan” for the way forward, or a political “event” such as another referendum or general election. But officials say May’s efforts to form a cross-party position with opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn and pledge to hold votes in Parliament on the desired outcome will probably be enough.
Without an agreement at the EU summit, the UK would leave the bloc on April 12 if Parliament doesn’t approve the deal before then. If an extension lasts beyond May 22, the UK would be obliged to participate in elections to the European Parliament.

After Google, EU's antitrust sights may turn to Amazon, Apple

US tech giants might have a respite after two decades of European Union antitrust investigations. But not for long.
While Google just got a third, and possibly final, EU fine on Wednesday, regulators still have their eyes on Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc.

EU antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, told reporters earlier this month that an early-stage probe into Amazon’s potential use of data to overtake smaller shops on its Marketplace platform is "quite advanced" and she’d "like to take more decisive steps" before she leaves office later this year. That might see the start of a full-blown investigation.
She’s also promised to examine a complaint Spotify Technology SA made targeting Apple’s app store and has said she "takes an interest" in potential anti-competitive behavior by Facebook.
The 1.49 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) fine levied Wednesday against Alphabet Inc.’s Google for thwarting advertising rivals was the third time Vestager penalized the US tech giant.
There are new cops doing the rounds too -- privacy authorities in countries armed with the power to levy fines of as much as 4 percent of a company’s annual sales for breaching the EU’s new data rules.
‘The truth is that many regard Google and Facebook as out of control,” Jonathan Compton, a partner at DMH Stallard in the U.K., said in an email after Wednesday’s fine. “The deeper problem is what to do about it. Even if you make the decision to regulate the big platforms, and that is an issue in itself involving freedom of expression, how can those platforms regulate their content when they have two billion or so users?”
Ireland’s data protection commissioner Helen Dixon is already looking into at least seven privacy probes targeting Facebook, with several other investigations her office opened targeting “very big internet companies,” she said in an interview in February. France’s data watchdog in January levied a record 50 million-euro fine against Google, which showed that watchdogs are taking the new guidelines seriously.
Amazon is also facing a probe by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, which last month made worldwide headlines by striking at Facebook’s user-data policy. Internet platforms usually raise concerns because of their “double role” as market-place providers that also compete with companies offering services on the portals, Andreas Mundt, head of the regulator, told reporters in Berlin on Thursday.
The German Amazon probe is likely to become another “sample case” just like the Facebook order is, he said.
New regulatory risks for tech companies are emerging. The EU agreed to new rules for online platforms in February that require internet firms to address some issues that have triggered antitrust cases. They will have to provide clear terms of service, more transparency about how products are ranked, and to establish a system for handling complaints. Companies are also required under the new rules to "exhaustively disclose" any advantage they give their own products.
A copyright reform finalized last month forces web firms to compensate publishers and creators for the content that appears on their websites. At the same time EU regulators are demanding Twitter Inc., Facebook and Google do more to fight disinformation on the internet ahead of May elections.

Won't reopen Brexit deal if your parliament rejects it, EU warns UK

European leaders gave Theresa May her Brexit deal but warned that the UK Parliament must vote for the plan it stands because negotiations will not be reopened if British politicians reject it.
On Sunday, the prime minister got her agreement on the UK’s divorce from the European Union at a special summit in Brussels, when the leaders of the 27 other member countries backed the legal text.
May now faces huge opposition from her own Conservative Party as she tries to persuade Parliament to back it. Even government ministers admit they have work to do to avoid defeat.
If May loses the vote in the House of Commons, which is expected to be held in December, the UK will be on course to exit the EU in March with no agreement and no transition period to cushion the blow. Some politicians want to send her back to Brussels to renegotiate if her first attempt is voted down.
As they gathered for the summit in Brussels on Sunday, EU leaders were united in saying that the deal on the table is the best the UK will get.
“It is important that everyone in the UK is aware of the fact that this agreement is the final result,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told reporters. “It will definitely not be renegotiated and there will be no further leeway.”
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier issued what sounded like a warning to Tories that they need to ratify the agreement if they want the next phase of talks -- focusing on the future trade terms -- to go well.
“This deal is a necessary step to build the trust between the UK and the EU that we need for the next phase of this unprecedented and ambitious partnership,” Barnier told reporters.“Now it’s time for everybody to take their responsibility.”
But European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker offered perhaps a glimmer of hope that marginal changes could be possible if May returns to Brussels asking for improvements after Parliament rejects the plan.
“It’s the best deal possible and the European Union will not change its fundamental position when it comes to this issue,” Juncker told reporters on Sunday. “I do think that the British Parliament -- because this is a wise parliament -- will ratify this deal.”
Euroskeptics in May’s Conservative Party hate the withdrawal agreement and are vowing to oppose it because it forces the UK to keep close to the EU’s trade rules. Many pro-EU politicians in Britain also regard it as unacceptable because the UK will not have a say over the rules it must observe.

Why May's battle may not be over despite EU's 11th-hour nod for Brexit deal

It’s been 17 months in the making but -- barring a last-minute hitch -- the U.K. and the European Union will agree the terms of Brexit at a special summit in Brussels on Sunday.
Yet for British Prime Minister Theresa May, who’s battled opposition from all sides on her way to a deal, the hardest part is still to come -- winning over critics in her own Conservative Party.
Her next task is to take the deal back to London and try to get it through a vote in Parliament. Euroskeptic Tories hate the plan to keep close to the EU’s trade rules and are vowing to oppose it. If the agreement fails to win approval from the House of Commons, the U.K. will be on course to crash out of the EU in a chaotic “no deal” split on March 29.

May’s search for parliamentary votes became even more complicated when an 11th hour clash with Spain over the future of the disputed territory of Gibraltar erupted into a crisis that threatened to torpedo Sunday’s summit.
Climbdown
On Saturday, May backed down, agreeing to demands for a legal declaration that any new trade pact between Gibraltar and the EU would need to be separate from the deal that the U.K. strikes. May insisted that her stance hadn’t changed, as the U.K. had already agreed that Gibraltar would be treated differently last year.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had threatened to boycott Sunday’s Brexit deal summit if she didn’t comply.
While Sanchez claimed victory, May’s compromise outraged euroskeptics in her Tory party, for whom the sovereignty of the 2.6 square-mile strip of British land adjoining the Spanish coast is a totemic issue.
Owen Paterson, a former minister and pro-Brexit campaigner, said May’s concession was “utterly shameful.” Gibraltar “should be free to enjoy the benefits of any new trade deals signed by a newly independent U.K.,” he told Bloomberg.
Another Tory Nadine Dorries said May had “abandoned” Gibraltar and “capitulated to every single EU demand.”
May defended her decision, insisting the U.K.’s policy hadn’t changed.
“We will always negotiate on behalf of the whole U.K. family including Gibraltar,” she said, arriving in Brussels for talks with Tusk on Saturday. “I’m proud that Gibraltar is British and I will always stand by Gibraltar.”
She later posted a 60-second video on Twitter that sought to explain why the overall deal was in Britain’s interest.
On Sunday May will be hoping for some respite. She’ll sit down with the leaders of the 27 remaining EU member countries and sign off on both the divorce deal and an outline for a future trade negotiation, which will start once the U.K. has left.
“I will recommend that we approve on Sunday the outcome of the #Brexit negotiations,” European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted. “No one has reasons to be happy. But at least at this critical time, the EU27 has passed the test of unity and solidarity.”

The race to avoid financial catastrophe is approaching the finish line

There was no announcement but word still made its way to European bankers as summer turned to autumn: For them, Brexit day was the end of 2018, not March 29, 2019, when the U.K. splits from the European Union.
That’s because executives in London needed three months notice for derivatives deals that would be closed or moved. And there was still no plan to avoid what central bankers and regulators feared was a potential Lehman-like meltdown in financial markets if trillions of dollars of transactions were suddenly put in legal limbo with EU firms locked out of London.

As politicians in London and Europe stumble toward a Brexit agreement -- with its final passage far from assured -- the race to avoid financial catastrophe is approaching the finish line. While fine legal points remain to be hammered out – and European politicians need to fulfill their promises -- officials on both sides have expressed confidence that market chaos will be avoided even in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Europe’s markets watchdog on Friday said it’s working with U.K. clearinghouses to ensure nothing goes awry.
We feel modestly comfortable that the right steps are being taken,'' Adam Farkas, executive director of the European Banking Authority, said in an interview on Nov. 22.
While banks have prepared for the worst -- setting up operations in the EU to avoid being locked out in case there was no deal -- authorities in the bloc have said they’ll do what it takes to ensure financial business continues without a hiccup. Those vows are essential for markets that rely on complex derivatives to manage risks on everything from residential mortgages to business loans to oil prices around the world.
EU-based firms have derivative contracts with a notional value of 69 trillion pounds ($89 trillion) at U.K. clearinghouses, with about 41 trillion pounds of that maturing after the U.K.’s withdrawal, according to the Bank of England. There are another 30 trillion pounds worth outside of clearinghouses.
This story recounting how central bankers, regulators and industry officials found common ground amid the political and technical hurdles is based on interviews with 10 people involved in the process. They asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issues.
The market where the bulk of Europe’s derivatives business is conducted -- the London Stock Exchange Group Plc’s LCH Ltd. clearing unit -- became a political football within days of the June 23, 2016 Brexit vote. Officials across Europe laid out the red carpet to lure London’s financial industry and leading EU finance ministers said euro-denominated clearing at LCH needed to move to the bloc.
At the same time, the bloc’s regulators began assessing what would happen if the U.K. and EU couldn’t agree on a withdrawal deal. At the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, a high-level group of regulators from across the EU began meeting in a Brexit task force. The group, led by officials from the ECB and national central banks, issued a series of internal “Brexit Monitor” documents that concluded the derivatives risk in case of a cliff-edge Brexit was “Lehman-like.”
By 2017, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, joined by Financial Conduct Authority Chief Andrew Bailey and the BOE’s Prudential Regulation Authority head Sam Woods, were losing patience as politicians dithered. They sounded the alarm in parliament, speeches to industry and media interviews.

The message was blunt: the threats were simply too big to be left to industry to solve on its own, with thousands of firms and millions of derivatives contracts and insurance policies, on the line. The U.K. was ready to step in with legislation to permit banks and insurers to do business in London in case of a hard Brexit, and so should the EU, they said.
Brussels lawmakers punted the question to the regulators, and so, in April 2018, the European Commission and U.K. Treasury charged the BOE and ECB with assessing the risks.
In the febrile political climate, the two sides couldn’t even agree on the panel’s mission. The U.K. wanted to fix problems, while the EU side saw it as a technical body to make recommendations to politicians. The EU side was irked that while the private talks were ongoing, the U.K. publicly was piling even more pressure on the EU to act.
The banks kept up the pressure, with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Association for Financial Markets in Europe, and FIA, the futures industry association, holding a round of meetings with officials across Europe and in Brussels. Their strategy -- with lawyers drafted in from Clifford Chance and across London’s legal world -- was to get as many people as possible to call for an EU policy to solve the problem.
At one meeting, ISDA pulled together support from Danish, Dutch, German, Irish, Italian and Swedish industry groups to argue that being cut off from London would harm financial firms based in the 27 remaining member states of the EU. Bankers began briefing journalists about the year-end deadline. The EU had to hurry to reassure markets that the bloc’s banks would continue to have access to London’s clearinghouses: LCH, the world’s biggest for interest-rate swaps; the London Metal Exchange, the world’s primary place to trade aluminum, copper and other industrial metals; and ICE Futures Europe, home to the Brent crude oil benchmark.
A spokesman for LSE, parent of the LCH clearinghouse, declined to comment for this story, pointing to August remarks from Chief Financial Officer David Warren that LCH was seeking EU recognition to continue serving EU customers from London.
At the European Securities and Markets Authority, the EU regulator that writes technical standards for markets, Chairman Steven Maijoor finally went public. In an Oct. 3 speech in Athens, Maijoor called on his fellow EU policy makers to ensure access to London clearinghouses through legislation.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU commissioner in charge of financial services policy, was still keeping mum on contingency plans, saying he need to wait for an update from the BOE and ECB group. The commission’s technical experts were aware of the risks but wary of stepping in front of the political talks.
Finally, on Nov. 13, the eve of the publication of the U.K.’s tentative withdrawal deal, the European Commission unveiled a plan to handle no-deal risks. The EU, which had referenced the BOE-ECB group’s analysis, pledged to allow U.K. clearinghouses and firms settling the massive market for exchange-traded funds to continue doing business with companies based in the bloc. The commission said tools can be “swiftly deployed” to solve those problems.
The industry raced out statements welcoming the preliminary divorce deal. But with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet in chaos and parliamentary approval far from clear, the industry emphasized that it had to continue planning for a hard Brexit.
And for those worries to be eased, the industry -- and BOE -- wants even more clarity from Brussels.
Jon Cunliffe, BOE deputy governor, told lawmakers this week that by early to mid-December, the markets need certainty about the legislative or regulatory tools the EU will use.

EU to respond to any US auto tariff move, says official amid trade war

The European Union will respond to any US move to raise tariffs on cars made in the bloc, a senior European Commission official said, the latest comments in an escalating trade row.
US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose a 20 per cent tariff on all imports of EU-assembled cars, a month after his administration launched an investigation into whether auto imports posed a national security threat.

"If they decide to raise their import tariffs, we'll have no choice, again, but to react," EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told French newspaper Le Monde.
"We don't want to fight (over trade) in public via Twitter.
We should end the escalation," he said in the comments published on Saturday.
The European Autos Stocks Index fell on Friday after Trump’s tariff threat. Shares US carmakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co also dropped.
"If these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the US. Build them here!" Trump tweeted.
The US Commerce Department has a deadline of February 2019 to investigate whether imports of automobiles and auto parts pose a risk to US national security.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday the department aimed to wrap up the probe by late July or August.
The Commerce Department plans to hold two days of public comments in July on its investigation of auto imports.
Trump has repeatedly singled out German auto imports to the United States for criticism.
Trump told carmakers at a meeting in the White House on May 11 that he was planning to impose tariffs of 20 or 25 per cent on some imported vehicles and sharply criticized Germany's automotive trade surplus with the United States.
The United States currently imposes a 2.5 per cent tariff on imported passenger cars from the EU and a 25 per cent tariff on imported pickup trucks. The EU imposes a 10 per cent tariff on imported US cars.
The tariff proposal has drawn sharp condemnation from Republican lawmakers and business groups. A group representing major US and foreign automakers has said it is "confident that vehicle imports do not pose a national security risk."
The US Chamber of Commerce said US auto production had doubled over the past decade, and said tariffs "would deal a staggering blow to the very industry it purports to protect and would threaten to ignite a global trade war."
German automakers Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG build vehicles at plants in the United States. BMW is one of South Carolina's largest employers, with more than 9,000 workers in the state.
The United States in 2017 accounted for about 15 per cent of worldwide Mercedes-Benz and BMW brand sales. It accounts for 5 per cent of Volkswagen's VW brand sales and 12 per cent of its Audi brand sales.

EU regulator calls the end of diesel in several years, puts faith in e-cars

Consumers may do as much as regulators to propel the car sector into the electricity-powered age foreseen by Tesla Inc., according to the European Union’s industrial-policy chief.
European Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska said the EU has had a “breakthrough moment” since Germany-based Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 that it fitted diesel engines with software to cheat US checks on smog-causing discharges of nitrogen oxides. This deeply affected “the emotions in society toward emissions and cleaner cars,” she said.

Brexit spurs EU banks to trim UK assets “Diesel cars are finished,” Bienkowska said in a May 24 interview in her ninth floor Brussels office. “I think in several years they will completely disappear. This is the technology of the past.”
The auto-emissions scandal may help the EU gear up for a technological revolution in road transport. Europe is seeking to retain leadership in the worldwide market for passenger cars in the face of competition from the US., where Tesla is based, and China, which accounts for about half of electric-vehicle sales.
Tighter Rules
VW’s cheating, which the U.S. uncovered and led Germany to order an EU-wide recall of 8.5 million Volkswagen vehicles, pushed the world’s No. 1 carmaker into a crisis and left policy makers in Europe scrambling to patch up regulatory holes that threatened a “clean-diesel” strategy dating to the 1990s. Bienkowska’s services were subsequently notified of possible engine-management irregularities in more diesel cars, including some made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
The issue has been politically thorny in Europe because around half the cars in the region are powered by diesel -- which causes more urban pollution than gasoline while having less global-warming impact -- and because many member states have struggled to meet clean-air goals meant to reduce human sicknesses and premature deaths.
“People have realized that we will never have completely clean -- without NOx -- diesel cars,” said Bienkowska, who comes from Poland.
Last week, EU governments backed a revamp of the rules for authorizing car models in the 28-nation bloc. The European Commission, the EU’s regulatory arm, won the power to fine automakers up to 30,000 euros ($35,157) per faulty car and order recalls as part of the more centralized market oversight, becoming more like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Carmaker ‘Arrogance’
Bienkowska said “arrogance” by carmakers, coupled with their traditionally close ties to national governments, meant the draft law was initially greeted as if the industry wrongdoing had been insignificant. Gradually, she said, attitudes changed.
“I am really a little bit less frustrated than I was a year ago,” said Bienkowska. “During this denial phase, it was awful.”
Adding to the optimism is an initiative by the commission and industry to spur the development in Europe of batteries for electric cars, including through financing. European companies seeking to get a foothold in the market include BMW AG, Daimler AG, BASF SE and Vattenfall AB.
“We want to have the first batteries produced in Europe, but also the whole value chain,” Bienkowska said. “It’s the kind of a project that a single member state cannot afford.”
Individual European companies are doing their part too.
VW, which aims to sell as many as 3 million all-electric cars annually by 2025, has awarded 40 billion euros in contracts to battery producers. The deals take the company to within striking distance of its target to lock down 50 billion euros in supplies.
European electric-vehicle sales, now about 1.5 percent of all new registrations on the continent, will rise to about 5 percent in 2021 and take off from 2025, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
European Incentives
EU policy to fight climate change may also play a role, albeit in a more nuanced way than China’s approach of imposing quotas. A draft European law to tighten caps on car discharges of carbon dioxide offers incentives for automakers to shift to electric vehicles.
In the meantime, Bienkowska must continue to tackle the haziness and headaches of the diesel age. She’s stepping up legal threats against several EU countries, including Germany and Italy, for lax enforcement of the previously agreed European rules meant to ensure carmakers heed NOx limits.
Bienkowska is also urging a number of EU nations, particularly in eastern Europe, to increase recalls of vehicles suspected of failing to meet NOx standards. At present, eight member countries have mandatory recalls in place.
“We have member states like Romania, Slovakia and Poland where the recall rate is extremely low,” she said. “We don’t want those parts of Europe to be full of old diesel cars.”

India Inc goes extra mile on data protection not just for EU but for all

As the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect in the European Union countries this week, Indian enterprises with business interests in the region are working overtime to keep pace. While IT services companies, for whom Europe is the second-largest market after North America, have been preparing for long for the GDPR regime, cloud-based software service providers have taken an extra step by making their products and platforms GDPR-compliant not just for the European customers or region but for all.
The GDPR has definite ramifications for Indian Internet and technology firms that have customers living in the EU. But, for now it is the SaaS (software as a service) companies such as Freshworks (formerly Freshdesk) and Eka Software that have made their entire platforms compliant with the new law for customers across the globe.

“We have made our entire platform GDPR-compliant. Though this law applies to European companies and customers, we have a lot of customers who may be based in the US but they have operations in Europe,’’ said Manav Garg, founder and CEO of Eka Software, a commodity management software solution provider.
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“We know that sooner or later, the privacy law like the GDPR will come into force everywhere. Why not comply with such best practices now itself instead of waiting,” Garg said.
Similarly, Freshworks, which provides cloud-based business software, has also made itself completely GDPR-compliant wherever it operates. The Chennai-based company started its GDPR process about a year ago by putting together an internal taskforce. “Because we are a data sub-processor, we might be dealing with an American company which might have European citizens as its customers. In such a case, our customers also become compliant under the GDPR,’’ according to Gaurav Kulkarni, program manager at Freshworks. The idea is to offer uniform features to the entire customer base without dividing things by region.
Most companies in the B2B Saas space have approached the GDPR in the same fashion so that they won’t have to look at different privacy policies for different customers.
In case of large Indian IT services companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Tech Mahindra, most of them are already compliant with the new European data privacy law. Now, they are also ensuring that their vendors and suppliers comply with it.
India’s largest IT services company, TCS, for instance, has set up a new unit to ensure compliance with various data privacy regulations including GDPR, and also has global privacy policy covering all applicable geographies and areas of operations.
It has launched enterprise-wide online training, educational tools, social media and other awareness initiatives regarding data privacy and protection as well as GDPR.
Among others, Tech Mahindra is engaging with its Israel-based cyber security unit to work towards GDPR compliance and helping vendors and clients adopt the same. Companies ranging from Wipro, Infosys and L&T to Persistent and Cyient, to name a few, have all got major European clients and thus have large stakes in GDPR compliance.
Implication for Indian citizen
While GDPR is applicable in EU countries, it is not just the residents who will come under the purview of the new privacy laws but also millions of non-EU citizens who are working, studying or simply travelling through the region. This means that Indian passing through these regions will also be governed by GDPR even if they are still accessing domestic services.
“Indian companies providing goods or services to EU citizens or residents will be obligated to comply with GDPR, including financial institutions. Indian financial service providers are not obligated to GDPR unless they are providing services to EU nationals or residents or have presence in the EU region or even service EU businesses in handling their data,” said Arpinder Singh, Partner & Head- India & Emerging Markets, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services, EY.
Last week, an IBM survey found that 76 per cent business leaders across the globe were of the view that GDPR will enable more trusted relationships with data subjects that will create new business opportunities. Only 36 per cent believed they were fully compliant.
Although international banks will have global standards for managing their data, they will also have to address country or region specific requirements of compliance or laws – such as Indian laws like the proposed data privacy and protection bill.
“Financial institutions have adopted the data segregation strategy by setting up region specific data centres and interfaces to minimise the risk of data breach and penalties. However, they need to be cautious about roaming users who use the financial services of these large organisations out of Europe,” noted Akshay Garkel, partner, Grant Thornton India.
Similarly, telecom service providers will have to regulate their service as per GDPR in case they are processing information of EU citizens. Depending upon the service or product which is utilised by the end –customer, appropriate consent has to be taken.
What is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU law on data protection and privacy that gives citizens control over how firms utilise their personal data
When did GDPR become active?
GDPR became active on May 25, 2018, months after the final regulations were put out in the public domain, giving companies enough time to ensure their services were compliant
What is the impact of GDPR on India?
Indian firms servicing European customers such as IT, ITeS and SaaS companies, or servicing customers who do business in Europe, will have to follow the guidelines on data privacy and protection laid down by GDPR