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Ursula von der Leyen’s statement welcoming the Brexit deal on Christmas Eve delighted her British audience with references to the Beatles and Shakespeare. But it was the words of TS Eliot that he cited at the end that struck a chord with the deepest chord: “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to finish is to begin ”.
Brexiteers recalled that Little Gidding was one of the poems that Margaret Thatcher chose for her funeral in 2013. But in the context of the agreement agreed last week, it is a shame that Von der Leyen did not continue with the following line: “the end is where we start from “.
After nine months of difficult talks between Britain and the European Union, the agreement marks the beginning of a myriad of additional negotiations within complex and permanent structures with its own secretariat, subcommittees, working groups and regular meetings in Brussels and London.
The agreement, which covers security, energy, transport and other issues as well as trade, establishes an Association Council, co-chaired by an EU high commissioner and a British minister.
“The Association Council will oversee the achievement of the objectives of this Agreement and any complementary agreements. You will oversee and facilitate the implementation and application of this Agreement and any supplemental agreements. Each Party may refer to the Association Council any matter related to the implementation, application and interpretation of this Agreement or of any complementary agreement ”, says the agreement.
Beneath the council is a Trade Association Committee, 18 specialized committees and four working groups dealing with different aspects of the agreement. The Association Committee, which will meet at least once a year but can meet at any time requested by either party, will have its own secretariat, made up of officials from each side. He will sit alongside the joint committee established to oversee the implementation of the withdrawal agreement, including the Northern Ireland protocol.
The agreement allows the European Parliament and Westminster to create a parliamentary association assembly of MEPs and MPs “as a forum to exchange views on the association”. And it provides for a civil society forum in which unions, business groups and NGOs from both sides participate.
The EU has all the necessary structures to staff and oversee all of these bodies, but the new structures pose a greater challenge for Britain, which has been dismantling its internal EU coordination mechanisms and will now have to rebuild them.
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