On Thursday 13 November, the EU Member States’ economics and finance ministers approved without debate the decision to open negotiations on two separate agreements with the United Kingdom: one for a common sanitary and phytosanitary area (SPS), to relax trade barriers on agricultural products imported into the EU in particular, as requested by London, and the other for linking the United Kingdom’s and the Union’s greenhouse emissions trading systems.
The Commission has been appointed as the Union’s negotiator. The EU27 ambassadors had given their unanimous green light to opening negotiations on 12 November.
According to The Financial Times, some minor disagreements surrounded the final declaration on launching these negotiations, particularly after a French request to “establish” the amount of London’s financial contribution to cohesion before it could participate in new parts of the internal market.
The joint declaration by the EU Council and the Commission finally indicates that, if a new agreement is reached providing for the United Kingdom’s participation in certain parts of the EU’s internal market, the Council and the Commission will examine the appropriate level of its financial contribution to cohesion policy, the term ‘establish’ not being retained.
An SPS agreement would align the UK’s sanitary and phytosanitary standards with those of the EU, removing most of the certificates and checks required for animals, plants and related products moving between the two zones. These benefits would also apply to movements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Among other things, the agreement on the ETS (the Emissions Trading System) would enable goods from both parties to benefit from reciprocal exemptions under the respective carbon border adjustment mechanisms.
As part of the renewed relationship, formalised on 19 May (see EUROPE 13643/1), the EU and London are negotiating a series of agreements and partnerships, notably on defence and security, electricity (with a probable new negotiating mandate for the Commission by the end of 2025), participation in the SAFE programme, an agreement on information security and a youth programme called the ‘Youth Experience Programme’, aimed at young people aged between 18 and 32, who would be granted a visa or residence permit.
This would not give UK nationals the right to free movement within the EU or any other rights that EU citizens enjoy by virtue of their citizenship.
It also provides for equal treatment in terms of access to university, post-secondary and vocational education for EU citizens and UK nationals, particularly as regards the level of tuition fees, according to a draft dated 21 October.
For London’s participation in the SAFE programme, which has not yet been finalised, the plan includes establishing eligibility criteria and the financial contribution.
A draft agreement dated 31 October indicates that this contribution was to consist of an administrative contribution covering staff costs directly linked to SAFE’s management as well as horizontal administrative management costs, and a participation contribution linked to UK entities’ participation in SAFE. This would be payable annually between 2026 and 2030 and calculated according to GDP and its defence industry’s size and competitiveness or its industry’s existing level of cooperation/integration.
UK legal entities eligible to participate should be established in the UK and have their head office in the UK, the EU, an EEA or EFTA member state or Ukraine. They must not be subject to the control of a third country or a third-country legal entity established in a third country, according to this draft seen by Agence Europe.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke by telephone on 12 November to take stock of the situation.
Link to the call: https://aeur.eu/f/jei (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)