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The two nations have ignored Brussels insistence that they take migrants presently residing in great numbers in Italy and Greece. Public opinion in Hungary and Poland is also strongly against being forced to accept thousands of migrants from non-European cultures.

Polands conservative Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwo PiS) swept to victory in 2015, partly due to voter anger over the previous government agreeing to take migrants under the quota system.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbn has been a vocal opponent of the scheme from its conception, asserting that forcing member countries to take a compulsory quota of migrants is unlawful and will spread terrorism around Europe.

Later this year, the two countries will be given an ultimatum and have to decide whether they are willing to maintain an anti-mass migration stances if it puts their membership of the EU at threat, a senior diplomatic source from one of the blocs six founding member states told The Times.

The source said: They will have to make a choice: are they in the European system or not? You cannot blackmail the EU, unity has a price.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is expected to hold a hearing on the legality of migrant quotas in the coming weeks, with a judgement widely expected to be in favour of the scheme likely by the end of the year.

We are confident that the ECJ will confirm validation, the source said. Then they must abide by the decision. If they dont then they will face consequences, both financial and political. No more opt-outs. There is no more one foot in and one foot out. We are going to be very tough on this.

Hungary challenged the court, insisting that it is culturally and constitutionally unreasonable to impose asylum seekers on unwilling member states.

In December, referring to policies of importing large numbers of people from the third world, Orbn stated that Hungary and other countries in Central Europe have had the opportunity to learn from Western Europes mistakes.

Hungary is a stable island in the turbulent western world because the people were consulted on their opinions here, and we defended the country against illegal immigration.

In 2015, when European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans demandedEastern and Central EU nations undergo similar demographic transitions as in Western Europe, Hungary was singled out for special mention.

Any society, anywhere in the world, will be diverse in the future thats the future of the world, Timmermans said. So [Central European countries] will have to get used to that. They need political leaders who have the courage to explain that to their population instead of playing into the fears as Ive seen Mr Orbn doing in the last couple of months.

Breitbart London reported that the European Union is to open asylum processing centres in west Africa and countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean because the continent needs six million migrants, the European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos said last month.

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European Union Tells Hungary and Poland To Accept Mass Migration Or Leave - Breitbart News

European Union Considering RBS Proposal (RBS) Investopedia The European Union is considering an alternative approach to help The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS) out of its current dilemma. The Scottish retail and investment bank has tried for nearly a decade to sell its Williams & Glyn mortgage unit, a ... and more »

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European Union Considering RBS Proposal (RBS) - Investopedia

President Trump thinks so, telling the Financial Times in an interview on Monday that, since the U.K. voted for Brexit, the "European Union is getting their act together."

"It just seems to be that there is a different spirit for holding together," Trump said. "I don't think they had that spirit when they were fighting with the U.K. and [the] U.K. ultimately decided to go out. ... I actually think it is going to be a great deal for [the] U.K., and I think it is going to be really, really good also for the European Union."

EU leaders are standing firm in the face of Brexit. And the economic outlook for the eurozone is brighter. Economic numbers released Monday suggest things are looking up for a region that has struggled to create jobs and generate momentum since the global financial crisis.

The unemployment rate across the countries that share the euro currency fell to 9.5% in February, its lowest level since May 2009. Analysts said rising business confidence was part of the reason.

A survey of about 3,000 manufacturing firms published at the same time shows factory output and orders rose last month at the fastest rate since April 2011.

"Eurozone manufacturing is clearly enjoying a sweet spell as we move into spring, but it is also suffering growing pains in the form of supply delays and rising costs," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.

Related: Trump's anti-EU rhetoric could actually help Europe

Europe faces a series of big political tests this year, and good news on the economy could determine whether the EU survives the Brexit shock of losing a member for the first time in its 60-year history.

Trump hailed Brexit as an example of people taking back control from political, business and media elites. And he has offered Prime Minister Theresa May talks on a bilateral trade deal that could be vital to Britain's future outside the EU.

But the president appears to have revised his earlier view that the EU would splinter as other countries chose to follow Britain through the exit door. His attacks may have contributed to that greater sense of unity -- analysts say it gives mainstream politicians a rallying cry.

Related: 5 huge obstacles to an amicable Brexit

Big test looms in France

EU leaders last week unveiled a draft set of tough principles for negotiating Britain's exit.

And Dutch voters rejected the far-right populism of nationalist Geert Wilders in an election in March. Still, the stakes will be much higher later this month when France holds elections. Right-wing leader Marine Le Pen has promised a referendum on France's EU membership if she wins the presidency.

"We are at the mercy of a currency adapted to Germany and not to our economy," Le Pen told a rally of her supporters on Sunday, according to Reuters. "The euro is mostly a knife stuck in our ribs to make us go where others want us to go."

There was positive news for France in March's manufacturing survey: New orders increased at the fastest pace in nearly six years.

The jobs numbers were less encouraging. French unemployment remained at 10%, with nearly three million people looking for work.

The eurozone has created nearly 3.9 million jobs since unemployment peaked at 19.3 million in April 2013. But more than 15 million people are still unemployed, and youth unemployment continues to plague several countries, including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. Youth unemployment in Greece and Spain is still above 40%.

CNNMoney (London) First published April 3, 2017: 10:24 AM ET

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Trump is right. Europe is getting its act together - CNNMoney

In 2012, the two countries agreed to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 - a 746 mile-long underwater pipeline for transporting natural gas directly from the Russia coast to Germany.

The pipeline is set to begin operations as early as 2019, with Russian gas being delivered to the coastal resort of Lubmin before being redistributed across central and eastern Europe.

The Nord Stream 2, which will run parallel to the Nord Stream 1, was allegedly launched without the consultation of Baltic states.

GETTY

According to Andra Jeinska, director of Latvias Conexus Baltic Grid - a company 34 per cent owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, the Baltic states "were not invited" to any talks.

The joint venture by Berlin and Moscow has already cost an incredible 6.4billion and has come under fire from the European Parliaments Energy Commissioner Miguel Aras Caete.

Mr Caete, a Spaniard, claims the project does not respect the rules of the common market.

GETTY

In a letter to the EU presidency in February, Energy Committee Chairman Jerzy Buzek said the project was counteracting the necessary diversification (of energy sources) while making a number of Member States even more vulnerable and jeopardising safe gas supply in the EU as a whole.

According to the Energy Commission, the pipeline project will never be one of common interest adding that in the future, Germany would be in total control of the gas supply to a large part of the continent.

However, the news has not been met with total outrage across the EU.

Latvia, for example, is currently wholly dependent on Russian gas, and has received the news with a sense of relief.

Arvils Aeradens, Latvias Economic and Energy Minister explained: It is much better for us to take control, not Russia.

Three other Baltic states, as well as Finland, Romania and Bulgaria, have also expressed a deep desire to become energy independent from Russia.

GETTY

The EUs own gas production, especially in the Netherlands, is likely to have by 2020, leading to a higher demand for gas imports.

Gas reserves in politically stable Norway of 1900 million cubic metres pales in comparison to Russias 47,000 million cubic metres - essentially the worlds largest gas reserve.

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Germany-Russia joint gas operation causes anger in the European Union - Express.co.uk

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Speaking out on Spains move to seize Gibraltar as leverage for the European Unions Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom as it moves to withdraw from the bloc, chief minister of the British Overseas TerritoryFabian Picardo made his views clear in the strongest terms in an interview withReuters.

Lashing out at recently re-selected EU president Donald Tusk who is overseeing the Brexit negotiations, Mr. Picardo said: Mr Tusk, who has been given to using the analogies of the divorce and divorce petition, is behaving like a cuckolded husband who is taking it out on the children.

Referring to the fact that the majority of Gibraltariansvoted to remain in the EU but had no interest in being divorced from Britain to be ruled by Spain, Mr. Picardo continued: We are not going to be a [bargaining] chip and we are not going to be a victim of Brexit as we are not the culprits of Brexit: we voted to stay in the European Union so taking it out on us is to allow Spain to behave in the manner of the bully.

The Falkland Islands and a dozen other territories are, like Gibraltar, sovereign parts of the United Kingdom, but are not automatically part of the EU only Gibraltar has that distinction. Leveraging this difference to their advantage, the EUsurprised Downing Street on Friday by declaring that any Brexit deal agreed with the UK wouldnt automatically apply to Gibraltar too, and any such deal would be subject to a veto by Spain.

The move suggests Brussels has de-facto sided with Spain over their territorial claim over Gibraltar, which they ceded to Britain in 1713 but later desired to re-claim. Wishing to settle the dispute, the British government held a referendum of Gibraltarresidents in 2002 which asked whether they would accept Spanish co-rule. Over 98 per cent rejected the notion.

Mr. Picardo said the paragraph excluding Gibraltar from negotiations and handing their fate to Madrid should be cut out of the EUs draft letter of reply.Removal of the reference to Gibraltar would be a sign of good faith and good will, he said.

A spokesman for Downing Street said of the spat: The Prime Minister said we will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes, nor will we ever enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content.

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Gibraltar: European Union Is Acting Like 'Cuckolded Husband' over Brexit - Breitbart News