British industries had hoped to get a temporary exemption from the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) while the carbon market linkage negotiations are underway

International News via Reuters:

The European Union will not exempt Britain from its CO2 emissions fee on imported goods until the two sides link their carbon markets, the bloc’s climate chief said on Wednesday.

British industries had hoped to get a temporary exemption from the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) while the carbon market linkage negotiations are underway.

The UK government has said the EU levy will cost its industry 800 million pounds a year.

EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said Britain would not be exempted from the carbon border levy until its carbon market was linked to the EU’s – a process officials say could take more than a year.

“We’re not exempting anyone, but the moment we will be fully linking those two, it is likely that there will be an exemption at that point in time,” he said.

The UK Cabinet Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hoekstra said Brussels was aware the UK government “would have … liked a different order to this whole set of events”.

“But that is something unfortunately we cannot change,” Hoekstra said, adding that the EU would work constructively with the UK to link the carbon markets. 

The EU CBAM will start imposing fees on the bloc’s imports of goods including steel and cement from January. But companies have until a September 2027 deadline to buy CBAM certificates to cover their 2026 emissions and submit them to the EU.

Reporting by Kate Abnett, Susanna Twidale; editing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen and Louise Heavens

The UK contribution for the 2027/28 academic year will be 570 million pounds ($760 million)

International News via Reuters:

Britain and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to allow UK students to rejoin the bloc’s popular student exchange programme Erasmus+, a small but symbolic sign of improved relations after Brexit.

The UK contribution for the 2027/28 academic year will be 570 million pounds ($760 million), the British government said, adding that the deal included a 30% discount compared to the default terms under the current trade deal with the EU.

The two sides have also agreed to start negotiations on electricity market integration, and have set a deadline to finalise a food and drink trade deal and carbon markets linkage next year, the statement said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought closer ties with the EU since he was elected last year and he hailed a “new era” in the relationship in May when the two sides agreed the most significant reset of defence and trade ties since the country’s departure from the bloc in 2020.

Starmer has sought to distinguish his approach from the often tense relations between previous Conservative governments and the EU during the Brexit negotiations.

“Today’s agreements prove that our new partnership with the EU is working,” EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said, calling the Erasmus+ deal “a huge win for our young people”.

“We have focused on the public’s priorities and secured a deal that puts opportunity first,” he said.

More than 100,000 people in the UK could benefit from the scheme in the first year, the government said.

The UK’s return to the Erasmus+ scheme, which allows hundreds of thousands of EU students each year to study in another country in the bloc for up to a year, has long been a key EU demand for strengthening ties between the two sides.

Britain previously left the programme following Brexit.

($1 = 0.7505 pounds)

Reporting by Catarina Demony and Muvija M, Editing by Paul Sandle