The end of ETA and post-Brexit budget battles in Brussels
Basque separatist group ETA declares it has completely dismantled and put an end to all its activity, ending an almost sixty-year guerilla campaign. In 2011 ETA declared a ceasefire, and last year handed over weapons, bringing Western Europe’s last major insurgency to a close. Justice was a much-used word in Spain this week, but it doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. After a judge cleared five men of the gang rape of a teenager at the Pamplona bull-running festival two years ago and convicted them with the lesser crime of sexual abuse, mass protests broke out all across Spain. While in Brussels, the battle for a bigger post-Brexit budget that the EU launched this week. The Commission’s draft proposal has already triggered some sniping among member states over how to fill the funding gap left by Britain’s exit next year.