Governatives

Proposals to force a post-Brexit cut in low-skilled migrants from the continent have ignited a political row on the eve of an explosive Commons battle over EU withdrawal.
A leaked Home Office document outlining ways to restrict immigration heightened the political temperature over Brexit after Labour insisted it would vote against the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which gets its second reading in Parliament on Thursday, and pro-Europe Tory MPs threatened to back amendments to the landmark legislation.

The Trump administration on Thursday announced it has chosen four companies to build concrete prototypes of the president’s much-touted border wall.

Construction of the prototypes, to take place in San Diego, is the first step in fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise of building a "big, beautiful" wall stretching along the 2,000-mile Mexico border.

Switzerland should be reintegrated into the Erasmus+ student exchange programme from the beginning of 2018, and not in 2021 as the government wants, says the Swiss Student Union.

On Monday a petition signed by 10,000 people was lodged with the federal government, demanding that Switzerland resume its negotiations with the EU on the subject so that Swiss students can be reintegrated in the programme by 2018 and to allocate sufficient financial resources to the scheme.

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.

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.

Sweden’s government faces mounting political pressure over its handling of a huge leak by one of its agencies of sensitive data, including potentially the identities of covert defence and intelligence personnel on overseas missions.

What began as a scandal earlier this month over an IT outsourcing deal between the Swedish Transport Authority and IBM in 2015 has turned into a full-blown political crisis for the government as the extent of the confidential data leak has become known.

The government is commissioning a "detailed assessment" of the costs and benefits of EU migrants as it plans how to manage immigration after Brexit. A new set of rules is needed for when EU free movement ends in the UK.
An independent committee, tasked with drawing up the Government’s immigration policy post-Brexit, has been asked to look specifically at how EU migrants affect different sectors of the UK economy amid suggestions new rules could be made for different industries.

Some experts suggest that environmental regulations, such as the US decision to quit the Paris Climate Agreement, are likely to have a zero impact on the US economy. Do you share this point of view? Why?

It depends on a period of time that you are talking about. I think that in the long run it has a negative impact. I believe that the energy sector, especially alternative energy sources, hold tremendous opportunities for economic growth. If the US is not going to push in that direction, then other counties will take that growth away. Thus, I think that within the next two years there may be no effect, but, going forward, it has a negative impact on the US economy.