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The joint committee between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom reached a consensus on Tuesday on the pending points of the withdrawal agreement already approved, with London abandoning legislation on the British internal market that violated the agreement. already approved and that legally frames the British exit from the Union that took place on January 31.
The clauses in question respected in particular the protocol for Northern Ireland, which creates customs controls in the Irish Sea.
“The UK will withdraw clauses 44, 45 and 47 of the proposed Internal Market Act, and will not introduce any similar provision in tax law,” the committee’s joint statement reads. The UK’s proposed internal market law was intended to replace European rules for trade between different UK regions (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) after leaving the EU and the British government sought to have powers. ignore certain provisions that were in the Agreement.
In particular, these were issues such as the filing of export declarations or customs controls between the British province of Northern Ireland and Great Britain, the island where England, Scotland and Wales meet.
Due to these clauses, the European Commission, on October 1, had decided to initiate infringement proceedings against the United Kingdom.
The announcement of the withdrawal of the clauses was made in a statement in which the committee affirms that the EU and the United Kingdom reached an “agreement in principle” on the implementation of the agreement to exit the EU.
“I am pleased to announce that, through hard work, Michael Gove and I have reached an agreement in principle on all matters related to the implementation of the exit agreement. This will ensure that [o acordo] it will be fully operational from January 1, including the Ireland / Northern Ireland protocol, ”Sefcovic, EU representative on the joint committee, wrote on his official Twitter account.
The joint declaration establishes that an agreement in principle has been reached in areas ranging from border control to declarations of export or supply of medicines, underlining that “to guarantee that the exit agreement (…) is operational at the end of the transition period “is an” essential “question.
British Cabinet Minister and UK representative on the committee, Michael Gove, welcomed the deal, also via Twitter.
“I am pleased to announce an agreement in principle on all matters of the EU-UK exit agreement. Thanks to Maros Sefcovic and his team for their constructive and pragmatic approach,” Gove wrote on Twitter.
The agreement in principle announced today will now be subject to internal procedures in both the UK and the EU, which, once finalized, will allow the joint committee to adopt the agreement announced today, something that, according to the document, should happen “in the next days” and before the end of the year.
Naturally, this is a step in the right direction and one that allows us to view the ongoing conversations about the future relationship with greater optimism, but this negotiation remains stalled by the same three hurdles (fisheries, level playing field and “governance”).
In the absence of an agreement (‘no deal’), as of January 1, 2021, economic and trade relations between the United Kingdom and the EU will be governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and with the application customs duties and customs controls in bilateral exchanges.
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