Europe

Brexit’s mistakes: EU citizens received letters to leave UK

The Home Office sent about 100 letters "in error" to EU citizens living in the UK, telling them they were liable for "detention".
The mistake emerged after a Finnish academic, who has the right to live in the UK, received one of the letters.
Eva Johanna Holmberg, a visiting academic fellow from the University of Helsinki at Queen Mary University of London, was told in the letter that she had a month to leave. She has lived in the UK with her British husband for most of the last decade.

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Brexit: UK plans to allow EU citizens to be visa-free

The U.K. will allow visa-free travel for EU citizens entering the country post Brexit, the Times reported Thursday, but would impose restrictions on their employment.

According to the report, an anticipated plan by the Home Office on post-Brexit migration will add that there will be no extra curbs on EU citizens travelling to Britain through airports and ports.
But prospective employers will have to sponsor EU applicants by applying for permits issued by the government. The number of available permits will vary according to the sector, and the government may charge companies a fee to issue them.

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Expert Commentary: Focus on US and EU economies

Eurozone inflation was stable in July and unemployment reached its lowest rate since February 2009. In your opinion, how that can impact the ECB’s interest rates?

I think that that the ECB might be happy about the growth outlook, but inflation is still looking really subdued. There is still some more slack in the economy, which would mean the European Central Bank is fairly patient and extremely gradual in its policy.

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Expert Commentary: Focus on EU economy

An opinion exists that London’s euro-clearing hub works very efficiently and that making any alterations to current practices will hurt the EU economy. Therefore, it might be a purely political question rather than economic. What do you think on this matter? Why?

I think London’s clearing system does work pretty efficiently, but there are issues related to the clearing of euro-denominated securities taking place in the jurisdiction beyond the ECB’s influence that will arise once the UK leaves the EU. A great concern is how the efficiency of the overall clearing system will be affected once euro-denominated clearing moves to somewhere in the EU, more precisely, in the Euro zone. Does it make sense for banks to have one part of their clearing infrastructure in London and another part somewhere in continental Europe? In my opinion, such system certainly becomes less efficient, but the issue is whether some banks and other institutions decide to move the entire clearing infrastructure to another part of Europe. I am not sure whether we have a complete parity over that yet, but it is certainly a problem that will come forward over the next two years

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Brexit: 19 countries running for London based agencies

The Council of the EU has received bids from 23 cities to host the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency, which will be relocated after Brexit.

In total eight offers have been made to host the EBA, which regulates the European banking sector, assessing risks and vulnerabilities by carrying out EU-wide stress tests. Some 19 cities are bidding to host the EMA, which is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU and maintains the single market for medicines in the EU.

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UK: Freedom of movement? No thanks, we chose Brexit

Freedom of movement for millions of British and EU citizens will end in 2019 when Brexit takes effect, the U.K. government insisted on Monday. The statement appeared to rule out transitional post-Brexit arrangements recently raised by a senior British minister.

“There were reports last week that we were looking for an off-the-shelf model; we are not looking for an off-the-shelf model. Precisely what the implementation model will look like is up for negotiation,” a government spokesperson said, adding more confusion to Brexit affairs.

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Eurozone unemployment falls to lowest since 2009

The eurozone’s unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in more than eight years, but the annual rate of inflation is unchanged, new data showed Monday, highlighting the challenge at the heart of the European Central Bank’s decision on dialing down its stimulus programs.

The European Union’s statistics agency said the proportion of workers without jobs across the 19 countries that use the euro fell to 9.1% in June from 9.2% in May, reaching its lowest level since February 2009. But consumer prices were just 1.3% higher in July than a year earlier, as the rate of inflation was unchanged, at its lowest level in 2017.

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