Sector News

UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 70

Mark’s EU Week for Transport ‘Hope for the best, plan for the worst’ is a quote that has many parents but nicely sums up the latest twists and turns of our Brexit saga.  In terms of planning for the worst, the European Commission issued a stark warning note on preparedness for the transport sector (see below) that irrespective of the scenario envisaged, Brexit will cause significant disruption for European citizens, businesses and administrations. It goes on to stress that preparedness is not just…

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UK Transport News & Views from Olly, no 67

Olly’s EU week for transport Hello all, Olly Kaye at the helm today, as my colleague Mark takes a break from News & Views this week. Today I’m giving a little more focus on what’s coming up in the EU on transport as we are about to head into the Austrian Presidency who will guide the Council of the European Union until 2019. Before I start on further news & views, a quick re-cap of what’s on in Brussels right now:…

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UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 66

Mark’s Brexit Week for Transport Whilst the ‘backstop’ debate dominated the Brexit news last week you may be forgiven for missing the future partnership paper for transport published by DExEU, a paper UKTiE has been calling for for almost a year. I’m sure it is something we should all welcome. The position paper is a good start, but we still need much more clarity. Indeed it’s noteworthy not for what is in it, but what is not included. On rail…

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UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 65

Mark’s Brexit Week for Transport With the UK Parliament back from recess, Brexit is now firmly back in the saddle and we’re hearing a lot of optimistic noises from DExEU. Nothing wrong with optimism, and the Micawber principle that something good will turn up sometimes holds true. But as a strategy to see us through Brexit and beyond it’s not enough, not least in the transport field where a culture of planning and risk based assessments has quite rightly replaced the early pioneers…

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UKTiE Response to Steve Baker MP

UKTiE has written a response to Steve Baker MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. Please find our initial letter here and Steve Baker MP’s response here. Steve Baker MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union 9 Downing Street SW1A 2AG 1 June 2018 Dear Steve, Many thanks for your letter of 12 April responding to my letter of 28 February. I very much welcome your recognition of the concerns of the UK transport…

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UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 64

Mark’s Brexit Week for Transport I detect the tectonic plates of Brexit are shifting, which will have a deep, profound and lasting impact on Brexit & transport. The focus has mainly been on the on-going struggle within Cabinet to reach an agreement on customs, which both avoids a hard border with Ireland and ensures UK sovereignty over trade and regulation.   As reported below, the Head of Britain’s HMRC told MPs recently that the ‘Max fac’ customs option, favoured by Brexiteers…

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UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 43

I reported last week that there was a positive feeling of getting back to business in Brussels, but in the past week that mood has suddenly changed for the worse demonstrating just how delicate and complex the issues surrounding Brexit can be. With the issue of Northern Ireland’s border dominating last week’s negotiations, along with the EU lays down a deadline ahead of the December European Council meeting, we are seeing the Brexit uncertainty coming up against a hard deadline…

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UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 42

Brexit is certainly back in business with a vengeance this week with talks resuming on Thursday here in Brussels, and the CBI revealing the results of a survey that show that more than 60 percent of firms may trigger Brexit contingency plans by March 2018 because of the lack of progress. Are we finally beginning to see business wading more forcefully into the UK government’s Brexit approach? As we report below, CBI chief Paul Drechsler will warn today at the…

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UK Transport and Brexit News & Views No. 40

Mark’s Brexit Week for Transport One of the things I learnt as an MEP is never wait until the meeting in Brussels to do a deal. That’s much too late. Even a week before is too late.  EU deals are done weeks if not months in advance, informally and behind the scenes. And so it will be with Brexit. Take last week’s summit. It took just 90 seconds to discuss Brexit and to agree a significant 100 word statement allowing…

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UKTiE 7th Annual Forum

UKTiE’s Annual Forum is Europe’s largest gathering of senior EU policy and law makers together with the UK’s leading transport organisations. UKTiE’s 7th Annual Forum will take place on November 28th in the European Parliament, kindly hosted by our patron Jacqueline Foster MEP, Conservative spokesman for Transport. The theme for the Forum is “Clean, connected and competitive – how to modernise Europe’s transport system” and we are inviting key senior EU policy and law makers to join us. For more information or to register for the event…

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