On Wednesday 12 February, the European Parliament adopted its position on the Twenty-Seven’s matters of priority in view of the negotiations to be opened in March between the EU and the UK on a post-Brexit cooperation agreement, including trade (see EUROPE 12423/5, 12420/1).
The draft resolution, prepared by the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, and GUE/NGL political groups, was adopted by a very large majority (543 votes in favour, 39 against, and 69 abstentions), indicating a consensus position within the assembly, which will be asked to give its consent to all or part of the future association agreement at the end of the negotiations.
MEPs want “as close a relationship as possible” between the EU and the UK, but not at any price. They reiterated the Twenty-Seven’s well-known principles, including: - a non-Member State must not have the same rights and benefits as a Member State of the Union; - the full integrity of the single market and the indivisibility of the four fundamental freedoms of movement; - the preservation of the legal order of the Union and the role of the Court of Justice in this respect; - the importance of ensuring a level playing field, guaranteeing equivalent standards in social, environmental, employment, competitive, and State aid matters; - the EU’s financial stability; - the balance of rights and obligations with proportionate financial contributions where appropriate.
In order to maintain bilateral trade relations without quotas or tariffs, the British government must commit to updating national rules to ensure “dynamic alignment” of EU and UK legislation, says Parliament.
On the other hand, the European institution stresses that the Commission must consider the possibility of applying quotas and tariffs to the most sensitive sectors and the need for safeguard clauses to protect the integrity of the Union’s single market. For example, to enter the EU, British food and agricultural products will have to continue to meet all EU standards in the areas of food safety, GMOs, pesticides, geographical indications, animal health, labelling and traceability, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and human, animal and plant health.
Fisheries. On the highly sensitive subject of the fisheries sector, MEPs established a direct link between the negotiations with the UK on access to waters and markets and those regarding the global economic partnership with a bilateral fisheries agreement to be reached by 1 July 2020.
Parliament believes that the future British fisheries management regime should not be less stringent than the current rules and obligations under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Thus, according to Parliament, the future bilateral agreement should guarantee permanent reciprocal access to territorial waters and maintain the current stable distribution of quotas between the EU and the UK for commonly exploited stocks.
On Tuesday, Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe, France), who is expected to head Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries (see EUROPE 12418/7), also stressed to the press the importance of “reciprocity in terms of access to waters and to the market”. The aim is to have an agreement “that is not renegotiated every year” with the United Kingdom, he said.
Supporting the broad lines of the Commission’s draft negotiating mandate (see EUROPE 12417/1), the resolution refers to future EU/UK cooperation on climate change, transport, and energy, as well as issues of equivalence of data protection rules and prudential financial standards. It also calls for a “full preservation” of the rights of citizens as guaranteed by the British withdrawal agreement.
Finally, according to Parliament, the United Kingdom should participate and contribute financially to cross-border, cultural, development, education, and research programmes (Erasmus+, Creative Europe, Horizon Europe, LIFE, TEN-T, Interreg, Joint Technology Initiatives, Galileo, Copernicus, and EGNOS).
It should be noted that the resolution excludes Gibraltar from the future agreement.
The EU’s negotiating mandate, which was debated by Member States on Wednesday, will be adopted by the ‘General Affairs’ Council on Tuesday 25 February.
See Parliament’s resolution: http://bit.ly/2UNyERM (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion with Lionel Changeur and Agathe Cherki)