EUROPE - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has issued a stark warning to Boris Johnson as EU negotiations revealed details of an “uncompromising” bullying approach to the trade talks next year. The European Union will unleash a flurry of red lines within the next month, as Brussels prepares to bully Boris Johnson into compromising on a trade deal during 2020. Boris Johnson’s thumping victory was initially greeted with statements of relief among EU leaders at a European summit yesterday. However, the well wishes did not last long as leaders like Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron revealed the hardline approach that Boris Johnson will have to deal with next year.
Following the resounding victory for Mr Johnson yesterday, European leaders are now preparing for the next stage of Brexit - the future trading relationship. Mrs Merkel said that the election's "clear result" added a "degree of certainty" to talks and paved the way for passing Boris Johnson's Brexit deal. However, she warned Mr Johnson that the trade talks will see the EU flex its muscles, saying: “We will have a competitor on our doorstep now. Great Britain will have to weigh its advantages to its disadvantages of leaving standards agreed in the EU.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also insisted that he would never allow "an unfair competitor" on Europe's doorstep. Philippe Lamberts MEP, who serves on the European Parliament’s Brexit committee, warned that Brussels will not compromise in their talks with the UK. He said that the UK could be in for a more difficult time than they faced negotiating the withdrawal agreement. Mr Lamberts said: “The EU will not be more flexible in the next set of negotiations. I know that in the Tory Party many believe the EU to be a paper tiger.
"But, when its come to defending what it perceives as its vital interest and the single market is one of those vital interests, the EU will be uncompromising just like the UK is." ITV's Brussels reporter James Mates said that EU leaders repeatedly told him that if Britain wants a close trade deal, the transition period of the end of 2020 will have to be extended. Last week, leaked comments from Michel Barnier revealed the EU’s Brexit negotiator thinks that it was unlikely the UK and the EU will put a trade deal together within 11 months.
Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, struck a hopeful note on Thursday, saying "in 11 months you can do a lot of things, if you have the political will". Irish leader Leo Varadkar added: “I think striking a trade deal by the end of 2020 is enormously ambitious, but we won’t achieve if we don’t try and we’re determined to try. I think the fact prime minister Johnson has a clear majority makes a big difference."
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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