Respecting the UK's desire to leave the EU, the European Parliament will vote on Wednesday to approve the withdrawal agreement, but the next step already needs to be looked at, said European Parliament Environment Committee Chair Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe France) on Monday 27 January in front of a small group of journalists.
This is because "the process that is beginning is the economic Brexit of 31 December 2020", and the committee chairs will be involved in Michel Barnier's contact group, which will be chaired by Nathalie Loiseau ( Renew Europe, France), alongside Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) and David McAllister (EPP, Germany). The MEP insisted that there will be no free access to the European market without the associated regulatory constraints.
Political issues will be negotiated, but also very technical issues, such as access to medicines, carbon markets, or food safety issues.
Climate policy is in the mandate that the working group will propose. The climate will be part of the 'level playing field', a concept that covers the whole of current European law to which the British have contributed, the dynamic alignment, the non-regression clause.
"We will negotiate the integration of a possible UK carbon market into the European Carbon Market (ETS) ", as was done between the ETS and the Swiss carbon market.
The EU will also extend the ETS, but not until 31 December 2020. According to Pascal Canfin, "this is a major issue of dynamic regulatory alignment", since the proposals that the Commission will make this year will only apply in 2021, 2022 and 2023. "The reform of the carbon market will have a very rapid impact on the level playing field," he said.
The UK's review of its 2030 and 2040 interim climate targets will also be closely monitored and could "pull us upwards", according to the MEP.
"If economic Brexit is still in a no-deal situation by 31 December 2020, if the British want to have their cake and eat it served up with a smile from Ursula von der Leyen, it's no; we would prefer an economic no-deal," said the MEP, assuring listeners that this view is shared by all political groups in the European Parliament.
In this hypothesis, Michel Barnier will look, sector by sector, product by product, at which rules will apply. Mr Canfin made a point of recalling that public health rules can take precedence over WTO rules.
As far as food safety is concerned, there is no question of accepting chlorinated chicken under a trade agreement negotiated by the United Kingdom with the United States on the latter's terms, Canfin said on the day the Americans called for an end to the European ban (see other news).
It is the free trade agreement that will define what a British product is. "In the Environment Committee, we will be extremely careful that no rules, no trade-offs will allow an imported product to be turned into a British product, where it does not meet our standards but enters the European market as a British product", Mr Canfin said.
Enforcing the agreement on the Irish border and avoiding possible competition between European ports will be two crucial issues, he said. "We know that there is a risk of competition between our ports, from Le Havre to Hamburg. There is a need to harmonise at European level the way in which checks on British products and those transiting through the UK should be carried out". (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)