UK to leave EU

[I_am_not_mafia]

Europe's chief Brexit negotiator says: 'We need the Scottish people ... we cannot afford to lose that'

“Europe hasn’t forgotten that a large majority of the Scottish people voted to remain,” Verhofstadt said. “We need the Scottish people and their firm European beliefs.

There was also love from Elmar Brok, the German chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a senior member of Angela Merkel’s CDU party. He said that his student days in our capital had stayed with him: “As a student I spent one year in Edinburgh. Since that time, Scotland is my big love,” Brok said. “Due to this emotional bond I always have an open heart for the interests of Scotland.”

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On the plus side though, not long now before the UK rids itself of the meddlesome EU red tape concerning air pollution.

European commission issues 'final warning' to UK over air pollution breaches

The UK is one of five countries served with the warning over persistent breaches of nitrogen dioxide ((NO2) levels, which come from sources including factories and vehicles, particularly diesel engines.

Air pollution is linked to the early deaths of about 40,000 people a year in the UK and causes problems such as heart and lung diseases and asthma.

The commission said that if the countries failed to take action on the issue within two months, it may decide to take the matter to the European court of justice.


Britain has been in breach of EU NO2 limits since 2010, with London overshooting its annual air pollution limit for the whole of 2017 in just the first five days.

A European commission spokesman Enrico Brivio told a briefing in Brussels: “It is a warning that we send to member states asking to comply, to take measures to fight this poor air quality that provokes respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease. It is an important factor on the health of citizens.

Asked whether the UK would remain bound by any legal proceedings after Brexit, the commission’s spokesman Alexander Winterstein said: “For as long as the UK is a member of the European Union, rights and obligations apply. European law applies fully.”

Labour’s Mary Creagh said: “We won’t be able to rely on European standards to kick the UK government into action when we leave the EU. That’s why, as chair of parliament’s environmental audit committee, I’ve called for a new Environmental Protection Act to ensure air pollution standards are not watered down.

Jenny Bates, a Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner, said: “It’s shameful that the EU has to take legal action against the UK government to get it to deal with the dangerous levels of dirty air across the country.

“Air pollution is responsible for tens of thousands of early deaths every year and is harming the health of an entire generation of children. Current government plans have been shown to be too little too late.”