EU Power Grab - “Commission opens in-depth investigation into UK”

UK's electricity supply is under threat from EU, even if UK leaves on 29 March under PM’s “deal”

Proof positive that May’s deal is a ‘non-Brexit Brexit’

Another exclusive Brexit Facts4EU.Org report

May and Juncker
© EU Commission

President Juncker demonstrates his 'EU red line-dance' to an eager pupil in Brussels on Wednesday
(A Brexit Facts4EU.Org interpretation.)

EU shows its power over UK under May's 'deal'

Yesterday as Jeremy Corbyn was in Brussels undermining the UK’s negotiating position with the EU, the Commission announced :-

“The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to determine whether the British scheme to safeguard security of electricity supply is in line with EU State aid rules. This follows the EU General Court's annulment of a previous Commission decision approving the scheme.”

This relates to the UK’s arrangements to ensure adequate electricity supply in the country, under the “British Capacity Market scheme”. These arrangements started five years ago, all the way back in 2014. The EU Commission’s announcement is dated yesterday, 21 Feb 2019.

In effect, the EU has just opened up the UK Government's energy policy to a detailed EU investigation on which it can adjudicate for years. This is despite the fact that the UK is supposed to be leaving - according to Mrs May - in just 36 days' time.

EU confirms UK will stay under ECJ jurisdiction for years, under May’s ‘deal’

The Commission went on to say that :-

“As long as the UK is an EU Member State, it has all the rights and obligations of the membership. In particular, EU competition law, including EU State aid rules, continue to apply in full to the United Kingdom and in the United Kingdom until it is no longer a member of the EU.
“If the Withdrawal Agreement agreed between the EU and the UK government, but not yet ratified, will enter into force, EU law will continue to apply to and in the United Kingdom after 29 March 2019, until the end of the transition period foreseen in the Withdrawal Agreement.”

The end of the transition period “foreseen in the Withdrawal Agreement” is in fact “20xx”. In other words it could in theory run until 2099.

What is the Electricity Capacity Market?

Here is what the UK’s official regulator, Ofgem, says :-

“The government has established the Capacity Market (CM) as part of its Electricity Market Reform policy. It is intended to incentivise investment in more sustainable, low-carbon electricity capacity at the least cost for energy consumers. This is needed to help secure electricity supplies for the future.”

This was a policy implemented under the UK's Electricity Capacity Regulations 2014, almost five years ago.

Observations

If the UK is under EU law, it has not left the EU. It is not an independent country. It has not ‘taken back control’.

Yesterday the Commission made it perfectly clear that under Theresa May’s appalling surrender document, (the so-called ‘Withdrawal Agreement’), the UK will stay under EU law and the EU cannot even give a date by which this will no longer be the case.

For the EU to have power over the UK's ability to ensure its own electricity supply is surely one of the best examples yet of the appalling nature of the 'deal' negotiated in Brussels by Mrs May's Remainer civil servants.

Supreme irony

The supreme irony which will not be lost on many readers is that the reason the UK government implemented this policy is because the UK is one of the few countries in the EU trying to stick to the EU’s targets for reductions in carbon emissions.

It is the EU which has been going fanatical over its global warming targets and its adherence to the Paris accord. The UK government responded and took action five years ago, and the move to more expensive and unreliable forms of electricity generation puts the reliability of our electricity supply under serious threat.

Now the EU has put the UK under an “in-depth investigation” for taking action to implement EU policy.

All MPs should read this

We would love to be able to say that what happened yesterday was a blip – a one-off irregularity in an otherwise ordered EU world. The simple fact is that none of the absurdity of this news is in any way surprising to us. Monitoring the EU on a daily basis we see this kind of thing all the time.

For MPs who clearly have very little knowledge of the EU which they hold so dear, we suggest they start educating themselves.

Labour MPs should wake up to the EU’s control over state aid – which lies at the heart of this – and Tory MPs should wake up to the fact that Mrs May’s ‘deal’ is not Brexit in any way, shape or form. The UK really will become a vassal state under her plans.

Faced with this nonsense, we urge all Remainer MPs to drop their ridiculous and ill-educated stance on rejecting a WTO World Trade Brexit.

WTO is the way to go.

#GoWTO

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[ Sources: EU Commission | Ofgem ]

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, 22 Feb 2019

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

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Reader Comments 9

1. Patrick F , Friday, February 22, 2019, 07:42:

If the UK fails the EU's targets for reductions in carbon emissions what sanctions can the EU impose on us?

2. Catherine, Dollar , Friday, February 22, 2019, 08:30:

A very partial contribution for Patrick F's question about EU sanctions: perversely, the UK is the EU's best pupil as regards carbon emissions - "The first carbon budget (2008-12) has been met and the UK is currently on track to outperform the second (2013-17) and third (2018-22) carbon budgets, but is not on track to meet the fourth, which covers the period 2023-27."
https://www.theccc.org.uk/t...
I think the EU's penalties systems are complex (what else?) and the fines beefy, if the EU wants them to be beefy - some thought Ireland would face a €600m fine for failing to meet targets
https://www.irishtimes.com/...

3. Jane S, Preston , Friday, February 22, 2019, 08:38:

Ha ha, did the EU remember to check if we fulfilled all the requirements when the UK joined its predecessor the EEC in 1973? Maybe we didn't, in which case they can just disqualify the UK for not being worthy of precious EU membership, saving us a lot of grief going forward. It could be a great shortcut through all this messing around.

4. James Bertram , Friday, February 22, 2019, 08:49:

Emailed to my MP, Anne Milton (Remainer and Conservative Minister). She will not be able to say that she did not know these facts when she no doubt votes for the Withdrawal Agreement. We will hold her to account, first off with the local elections on May 2nd.

5. Scot, Scotland , Friday, February 22, 2019, 08:58:

This 'EU red line-dance' looks quite dangerous. By the look of the plaster on Juncker's cheek he's already fallen on his face during rehearsals, or maybe that was just because it was after lunch...?

6. A.B.JONES , Saturday, February 23, 2019, 09:00:

Should have been his throat.

7. Errol the happy pig , Sunday, February 24, 2019, 18:10:

All that does is confirm what applies to everything. If we have an agreed transition, then until we have negotiated a comprehensive trade agreement and formally left completely, we are covered and protected by existing legislation and obligations. If we leave without a deal - which very, very few thought was a possibility when we had the referendum - then we are neither covered nor protected.
That’s what “no-deal Brexit” means. There’s nothing sinister about this.
If we leave without a transition deal, all existing agreements and protections disappear, if we come to an agreement to have a transition deal, then we are covered until it is complete.
That’s what the deal is all about: the transition, not the endgame.

8. Marley , Thursday, February 28, 2019, 11:20:

While reviewing the common fisheries policy in 2012 which aimed to stop throwing 1m tons of edible fish back into the sea, UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew and at that time Chair of the committee noticed a clause… the EU wanted jurisdiction over our seabed right up to our coastlines. Thankfully he made sure it was struck off at the eleventh hour. Of course this would have taken any mineral rights away from the UK into EU hands… the gas, the coal, the oil. They have stopped us using our copious reserves of shale gas which could power our economy as we clamber out of the hole the EU has dug for us and restore us to the manufacturing and trading nation we once were.
The EU has cast its greedy eyes on our shale gas reserves (which haver halved US energy bills for industries and consumers alike). They preferred we didn't frack our own gas, but delay until their control enables them to allot drill licences to their crony companies and themselves, getting it on the cheap because we have a 'deal' not to charge the market price for it. Hence the various protests and faux alarms. If May signs over jurisdiction under the cover of 'environmental concerns' it will be the greatest treachery ever committed by a UK Prime Minister. It's literally a "Power Grab".

9. Anthony Charlesworth , Thursday, March 21, 2019, 07:33:

We need new government with new ideas and ideology.
Join the Veterans and people's party and help them prepare for elections to drain the swamp. 🇬🇧

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