2 years notice, at least 7 years negotiations to leave EU with any sort of deal

EU Council chief Donald Tusk warned that renegotiating the relationship between the UK and the EU could take up to seven years, in case Britons vote to leave the bloc in the 23 June referendum, reports EUobserver. Tusk told German newspaper Bild that while the exit has to be negotiated in two years, agreeing to a new deal on the relations which would have to be approved by all the 27 governments and the European Parliament, could take up to five years more. The former Polish prime minister warned that even then it is not a done deal: https://euobserver.com/uk-referendum/133795

WHO NEEDS FACTS? A survey of Britons shows that, on average, they think there are three times as many EU migrants in the country as is the case, reports Politico, picking up a story in The Independent and based on a survey by Ipsos Mori and UK in a Changing Europe. There are a range of other misconceptions too - including around the cost of EU membership: https://dub129.mail.live.com/?tid=cmmpX66iIx5hGOYtidZ19z1w2&fid=flinbox

"If the United Kingdom chooses to leave the European Union on 23 June, I want to see them pay the full price," Yannick Jadot, a French Green MEP, told EurActiv. "It has to cost them dearly, otherwise other countries like Slovakia will start to think they would be better off adopting the United Kingdom's individualist strategy rather than playing as a team," the MEP added. "All of Europe's extreme right and populist politicians will be able to play the David Cameron card and negotiate a special status": http://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/news/european-parliament-plans-extraordinary-session-in-case-of-brexit-vote/?nl_ref=14726704

If there was ever a time for the British electorate to become politically active and have a say in their futures and that of their children, now is the time, writes Sajjad Karim, a British Conservative MEP in an op-ed in Euractiv. The outcome will affect our country for generations to come.If we end up with a vote for Brexit, the very existence of the United Kingdom as we know it is in peril: http://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/opinion/brexit-could-destroy-the-uk-as-we-know-it/?nl_ref=14726704

Europe is coming around to Donald Tusk's way of thinking, says a report in Politico. The European Council president has been spreading a message that until recently would have sounded surprisingly Euroskeptic coming from the head of an EU institution: We need to let go of the "European" dream - at least as it has usually been defined since the founding of the Union. But rather than provoke outrage, Tusk's position is largely being accepted as the new EU reality, even by stalwart European integrationists who now admit that the answer to every problem is not "More Europe": http://www.politico.eu/article/european-council-president-donald-tusk-buries-the-european-dream/

In a comment piece in Politico linking football hooliganism and Brexit, Tunku Varadarajan writes: [W]ith beer in their bellies, rolled-up tabloids in their arse-pockets, sun on their heads and Brexit on their minds, the English football fans are ready to riot, to stage their unkempt nationalist theatre: http://www.politico.eu/blogs/the-linesman/2016/06/why-are-the-english-being-hooligans-again-uefa-euro-2016-violence-russia-clashes-marseille/

EU POLICY IMPLICATIONS FROM ORLANDO MASSACRE: FIREARMS DIRECTIVE IN SPOTLIGHT. In the wake of the Paris attacks, the European Commission, with the backing of national governments, proposed the second revision of the 1991 EU firearms directive, reports Politico. The proposals, which in summary are to ban semi-automatic and automatic multi-round weapons, face significant backlash in the European Parliament, which will discuss the issue this week…Source says a split has opened in the internal market committee, with right wing MEPs rejecting proposals agreed last week in Council to ban high capacity semi automatic firearms, in contrast to Socialist and Green MEPs, who are more supportive. A vote is scheduled for mid-July: https://dub129.mail.live.com/?tid=cmmpX66iIx5hGOYtidZ19z1w2&fid=flinbox

EU ministers delayed a decision to grant visa-free travel to Georgia in Luxembourg on Friday (10 June) as they wait for a so-called emergency brake to be introduced, reports EUobserver. Member states would like to set up a mechanism to suspend visa waivers with third countries more easily and more quickly in case of mass-scale overstays or bogus asylum claims…Ministers from Germany, France and Italy on Friday repeated their opposition to lifting visas for Georgians because of an alleged crime spree by Georgian gangs: https://euobserver.com/migration/133790

The [European Commission] is expected to lay out the legislative framework that will increase energy efficiency across the bloc this autumn, reports EurActiv. Revisions to the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive will be scrutinised to see if they have the heft to deliver on climate, cost, and energy security: http://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/high-expectations-for-eu-efficiency-laws-as-sustainable-energy-week-begins/?nl_ref=14726704

Courtesy of Peter Morris, European Movement in North East