The European Parliament is set to vote this week on contingency measures to ensure road and air connections and access to fisheries in the event of a failure to agree on a post-Brexit relationship with the UK by the end of the year. Members of the European Parliament Committee on Trade (INTA) met in camera on Monday 14 December to discuss the state of the negotiations (see other news).
Some regretted the lack of time left to consider a potential agreement at this stage. Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finland) shared some of her concerns. “The time available to Parliament to consider the possible agreement is being eroded. And this is amplified by the fact that Parliament does not have access to the negotiating texts”, she told EUROPE.
INTA Committee Chair Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) made the same remarks at the meeting and denounced a lack of transparency on the part of the European Commission.
However, the S&D group believes that an agreement is possible. “If there is an agreement in the coming days, we will work night and day to assess the text as soon as possible”, Kathleen van Brempt (S&D, Belgium) told EUROPE.
According to Christophe Hansen (EPP, Luxembourg), it is still possible to ratify the agreement if it is reached between the two parties before the end of the week. Otherwise, the agreement will not have to be applied provisionally, if it cannot be examined and ratified in time by Parliament, he explained to EUROPE. “An interim agreement is something that is legally weak, when our businesses need security and an end to tinkering more than ever”, he said.
The Trade Committee is rather united in saying that the ball is in the British court to come to a quick agreement. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)