The seventh EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly took place in Brussels on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 March, and provided an opportunity for both sides to take stock of “the positive evolution and implementation of the existing agreement between the EU and UK”, as Renew Europe MEP Sandro Gozi (Italian), Co-Chair of the Assembly with UK MP Marsha de Cordova, summed up on Tuesday 17 March.
“We also focused on what’s next, in particular the forthcoming EU-UK Summit. We expect progress on key issues for the bilateral relationship such as trade and sanitary and phyto-sanitary agreement, youth mobility through the agreement and implementation of the new youth experience scheme, further advanced cooperation also in the climate sector with the Emissions Trading System”.
The meeting was also an opportunity to reaffirm “that our interests are converging and our interests are more and more important also in the context of the current global turmoil”.
The partnership between the EU and the UK is becoming increasingly important in areas such as economic security and defence, added the MEP.
“We want to focus on a civil dimension, on a local dimension, and this is why in this context we have also attached the greatest importance to the restart of the cooperation between local authorities and regional authorities”.
In the UK’s view, the two-day dialogue built “good consensus in some of the areas, notably around defence and security, particularly when we think about where we are globally”.
“One of the areas that we had to also give focus to is around economic security and resilience, part of that has been energy security. So finding agreement and cooperation in that space is also going to be equally as important. Whilst we welcome the progress that has been made particularly around Erasmus+, we obviously want to see more opportunities for young people to be able to live, work and travel both in the UK but also in Europe”.
Regions. For the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), the conclusions published represent a major step forward. The Chair of the CoR-UK Contact Group, Karl Vanlouwe (European Alliance, Belgian), welcomed “the recognition of the role of local and regional authorities in the Parliamentary Partnership Assembly. Regions and cities experience the impact of Brexit first-hand, and their expertise is essential to building constructive and meaningful EU-UK cooperation going forward”.
The local and regional dimension is reflected in many practical areas, such as transport connectivity, research and innovation, culture and education, tourism, environmental management, health and emergency cooperation, migration and access to finance, adds the CoR. “It is important that local, regional and devolved government have a clear role and engagement across the EU and UK”.
A recommendation on local and regional authorities (LRAs) was also adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly.
It highlights the role of local and regional authorities in implementing many of the areas covered by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and other EU-UK agreements.
Link to the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/l7y (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)