The leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups held discussions on Thursday 30 September with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, on the relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom and the implementation of both the Withdrawal Agreement, with its protocol on Northern Ireland, and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
On the first point, MEPs reiterated that they rule out a renegotiation of the treaties and protocols, but they support the Commission’s plan to seek flexibilities in the implementation of the protocol.
The Commission is expected to put proposals on the table, in principle in mid-October, aiming for example at a greater inclusion of Northern Irish players or at facilitating trade in goods. Relations with the UK are, however, currently subject to further tensions over fisheries licences (see separate article in this newsletter), but these issues do not currently impact on these forthcoming proposals for Northern Ireland.
The European Parliament, in any case, decided on Thursday to officially validate, next week in Strasbourg, the establishment of the EU-UK interparliamentary assembly, which will be responsible for maintaining links, but will not take decisions. The European Parliament delegation will be composed of 35 members, distributed according to the size of the European Parliament political groups. The names of the members will be known by the time of the vote validating this assembly, scheduled for the evening of 5 October. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)