The European Parliament steering group charged with assessing the progress of Brexit negotiations took stock with European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Tuesday 25 July of the second round of negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom from 17 to 20 July (see EUROPE 11834).
It reminded Barnier of the points – citizens’ rights, the financial settlement and the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland – that it wants to see incorporated into the withdrawal agreement with the UK so that Parliament can ultimately approve the said agreement.
The European Parliament cannot make it any clearer that “sufficient progress” will have to be made across the board and not merely in one or two areas before negotiations can begin on the future relationship between the EU and the UK. The group says in a press release that “the European Parliament will formally, and in due time, indicate when the point of ‘sufficient progress’ has been reached”.
The members of the group – Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), who is also Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany), Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, Italy), Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium), Gaby Zimmer (GUE/NGL, Germany) and Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland) – state that Parliament “will continue to push for full rights for EU citizens in the UK as well as UK citizens in the EU”. It is the “core mission”, they say, of the European project to protect, not to diminish, the fundamental rights of all citizens.
“The European Parliament specifically seeks to fully safeguard the rights concerning family reunion, comprehensive healthcare, voting rights in local elections, the transferability of (social) rights and the rules governing permanent residence (including the right to leave the UK without losing this status). Simultaneously, we seek to avoid an administrative burden for citizens and want proposals which are intrusive to people’s privacy off the table, e.g. proposed systematic criminality checks”, the steering group says. Parliament also wants the withdrawal agreement to be “directly enforceable and to include a mechanism in which the European Court of Justice can play its full role”, the group adds.
The next round of negotiations between the EU27 and the United Kingdom is scheduled for 28 August. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)