In Strasbourg on Wednesday 5 April, the European Parliament will adopt a highly political resolution laying out its principles and orientations in the framework of the negotiations on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, a two-year process which the British government will officially trigger on Wednesday 29 March.
The resolution did not prove difficult to negotiate and was relatively consensual between the presidents of the principal pro-European political groups, said the co-chair of the Greens/EFA Group, Belgium's Philippe Lamberts.
The aim is for no amendments to be tabled by the principal pro-European groups, to allow the largest possible majority to be reached and to send out a strong signal to the negotiators, on both the British side and that of the EU27, with the latter party to agree on the guidelines to steer its negotiating position on Saturday 29 April.
On Wednesday, the conference of the presidents of the political groups will provide them with an opportunity to notify their counterparts of the content of the draft resolution and finalise the draft text. The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said on Tuesday 28 March, following a meeting with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, that he would hold a meeting of the presidents of the political groups to discuss the European Parliament's position on the Brexit talks. He went on to say that they would work assiduously to ensure a fair and orderly divorce between the EU and the UK.
The European Parliament will have no direct involvement in the negotiations, but it will be kept informed as they progress. It will, however, have a vital role, as it will be called upon to approve the UK's withdrawal agreement and the subsequent agreement on future relations between the EU and the UK once it is a third country again in 2019.
Central to the resolution is the idea that the UK cannot be better off outside the EU than in it, another source said. "It has to be clear that being out of the EU is different from being in it. However, after the divorce, we must work for a good partnership with the UK", Tajani said.
As far as the European Parliament is concerned, the main elements to be negotiated are the same as those already listed by the EU's negotiator in chief, Michel Barnier (see EUROPE 11755). However, top of the MEPs' list of concerns is the matter of the 4.5 million European citizens living in the UK and British citizens living in the EU, followed by the budgetary balance the British government must settle in order to honour its commitments under the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020.
"It's a 'hard Brexit' resolution", a parliamentary source commented, adding that the European Parliament is simply taking position in response to the desire of the British government to leave the single market in order to avoid having to observe the freedom of movement people, avoid being bound by the case-law of the Court of Justice and to allow it to negotiate its own trade deals as it sees fit.
The questions raised by the European Parliament resolution include the preservation of the Good Friday peace agreement in Ireland. Lamberts argues that reference should also be made to Scotland, most of which voted in the British referendum of June 2016 to stay (see EUROPE 11580). There should also be a reference to the financial sector, a tricky element of the negotiations as the City of London, the largest financial market in Europe, will no longer have access to the single market and Brexit will require the European Banking Authority to relocate.
In favour of negotiations in two stages
The Parliament will also clearly reaffirm the principle already defended by the Europeans that negotiations must be carried out in two stages: firstly, the UK's withdrawal agreement must be negotiated, with the deal on future relations between the partners to follow at a later stage.
"We need a two-stage approach, or everything will get mixed up and be even more complex", said Germany's Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP group. He described Brexit as a "historical mistake", a few days after the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, at which the 27 reiterated the importance of European unity to ride out global challenges.
The German Christian Democrat, who believes that the two-year period of talks will give the EU a strategic advantage, said that it will not be possible to negotiate the withdrawal agreement and future relationship between the EU and the UK in 18 months, taking account of the six months needed to ratify the agreements. We will have to talk of "interim periods" that will govern relations between the parties transitionally, he said.
On Wednesday 29 March, the British government will personally, through the permanent representative of the UK to the EU, hand over to the European Council its letter officially asking to leave the EU. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has already stated that the 27 will be in a position to react to the triggering of Article 50 of the Treaty within 48 hours (EUROPE 11743). However, the negotiations proper are not expected to start before June, a year after the British voted for 'Brexit'. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)