LOW RES MBR ISSUE 36

YOUR MONTHLY G
DRIVING BRUSSE
Malta Business Review
EU
By RYAN HEATH with HARRY C
It’s not a real month in Europe if there’s no
summit. So the EU’s putting on five summits
for you over the next seven weeks to make
you feel at home. There’s the Social Summit
in Gothenburg, Sweden November 17. Then
there’s the Eastern Partnership Summit
(with its own logo!) November 24, the EU-
African Union summit November 29-30,
a December euro summit (with eurozone
wannabes invited too) likely to be attached
to the Eurogroup meeting in the first week
of December, and then the regular EU
leaders’ summit December 14 and 15. MBR
COMMISSIONERS ON TOUR
President Jean-Claude Juncker is in Portugal
to meet Prime Minister António Costa and
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. First Vice
President Frans Timmermans is in Greece
to receive the Grand Cross of the Phoenix
medal and also an honorary doctorate from
University of Athens. High Representative
Federica Mogherini is in Italy to speak about
European defense initiatives. Vice President
Valdis Dombrovskis is in Estonia to meet
leaders and give a speech on eurozone reform.
Commissioner Pierre Moscovici meets Nick
Clegg, the former U.K. deputy prime minister
and leader of the Liberal Democrats, Kenneth
Clarke MP and Andrew Adonis (all opponents
of Brexit). Commissioner Phil Hogan is in
Northern Ireland for the World Dairy Summit.
DIGITAL POLITICS — SILICON VALLEY
ON SEINE:
French President Emmanuel Macron is using
state cash to foster tech startups, writes
Mark Scott, and it’s starting to work. So far
this year, French venture funds raised more
cash compared to their British or German
counterparts, while Macron has won plaudits
for promoting startups as a solution to the
country’s sluggish economic growth and
double-digital rates of youth unemployment.
But don’t be fooled; not everything is rosy
in France’s tech scene, particularly when it
comes to creating billion-euro startups and
offering bumper profits to investors.
A message from Iberdrola: The future of
energy today: being one step ahead of the
energy transition. By embracing renewables,
energy storage, digitalization and smart
networks, we have become “the Utility of the
Future.” Discover Iberdrola’s commitment to
a sustainable future. And we are still only at
the beginning of a long road!
TRADING DOWN — EU GLYPHOSATE BAN
COULD DISRUPT GLOBAL TRADE:
If the EU blocks its own farmers from using
glyphosate, those same farmers could make
it almost politically impossible for Europe to
continue importing food grown using the
herbicide, write Simon Marks and Giulia
Paravicini. MBR
CATALONIA DECLARES
INDEPENDENCE — MADRID IMPOSES
DIRECT RULE
Independence demonstrators
Seventy of the Catalan parliament’s 135
members voted in favour of independence
at 3:30 p.m. local time Friday. Within minutes
Wikipedia had been updated to list Catalonia
as a “disputed territory.” Spanish Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy said “the rule of law
will restore legality in Catalonia,” the Catalan
Parliament was dissolved by Madrid, and new
elections will be held December 21. The moves
are a major escalation in a years-long conflict
between Catalonia’s pro-independence
leaders and the Spanish government that
came to a head with a disputed referendum on
October 1. European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU “doesn’t need
any more fissures.”
Spanish protest: At least 300,000 marched for
Spanish unity in Barcelona Sunday 30/10/2017.
Who’s in charge? Spain’s Deputy Prime
Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has
become the de facto president of Catalonia.
Madrid fires Catalonia’s EU ‘ambassador’:
Amadeu Altafaj told Playbook he is one
of more than 140 officials fired by the
Spanish government. Unlike all of Catalonia’s
delegations abroad, parts the EU delegation
office have been retained by Madrid because
of the technical nature of EU-related funding
and other negotiations, but Altafaj’s role was
considered political rather than technical.
Antonio Tajani says ‘No one will ever
recognize Catalonia‘: The European
Parliament president, speaking to reporters
Saturday, said the EU’s position is very clear:
“The referendum was illegal … The state of
law should be restored,” and no EU country
will recognize Catalonia as an independent
country.
Asylum in Belgium for Puigdemont? Theo
Francken, Belgium’s controversial state
secretary for asylum and migration and
a Flemish nationalist, told Flemish public
broadcaster VRT that Carles Puigdemont,
removed from office by the Spanish
government last week, could apply for asylum
in Belgium. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander
De Croo shut him down, saying on Twitter such
talk was unnecessary. MBR
EU NATIONAL NEWS
HARASSMENT SCANDALS SPREAD TO
WESTMINSTER — MAY SAID TO BE IN
DANGER …
Theresa May stands accused of ignoring
Tory MPs’ sexual misconduct and allowing
ministers facing allegations of wrongdoing to
serve in her Cabinet. Guido published, with
names redacted, a spreadsheet featuring
36 serving Tory MPs on a “dossier of shame”
being circulated by junior party aides. The Sun
reports May now fears for her government and
may bring forward a Cabinet reshuffle in light
of a growing set of harassment allegations,
including against Mark Garnier, a minister at
the international trade department, who the
Mail on Sunday reports admitted calling his
former secretary “sugar tits” and asking her
to buy two vibrators at a Soho sex shop. The
Sunday Times claims a serving minister placed
his hand on the thigh of a female journalist
and declared: “God, I love those tits.” Stephen
Crabb, a married former Cabinet minister,
apologized for “sexual chatter” with a teenage.
Westminster employees are organizing to out
harassers via WhatsApp groups, and Labour
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