Members of EP Committees on International Trade (INTA) and on Foreign Affairs (AFET) meet in the European Parliament in Brussels, to debrief on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement reached by EU and British negotiators on 24 December. Illustration shots of the meeting and extracts from the statements by David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), AFET Chair and by Bernd LANGE (S&D, DE), INTA Chair.

Debriefing on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement at EP INTA/AFET joint committees: illustration shots of the meeting and extracts from the statements by David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), AFET Chair and by Bernd LANGE (S&D, DE), INTA Chair

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SOUNDBITE (English), David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), AFET Chair, First of all, I'm glad that a breakthrough was reached on Christmas Eve and that we finally did get a deal because this means that our future partnership with the United Kingdom is on a solid legal basis. We've also avoided the disruptions which would have occurred in case of a no deal scenario on the 1st of January. Now we have this deal. We have this agreement. It is applied on a provisional basis. But of course, now it's time for parliamentary scrutiny. All in all, I would say this is a good agreement. It's fair and balanced.

SOUNDBITE (English), David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), AFET Chair, These negotiations took place under unprecedented circumstances. We were under enormous time pressure. And in the end, I am, as mentioned, glad that we've got this agreement. However, the whole procedure is not satisfactory. And the European Parliament has been clear that provisional application must remain an exception. This has to be a unique situation, and under no circumstances can this set a precedent for future trade agreements.

SOUNDBITE (English), David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), AFET Chair, The European Parliament has started the parliamentary scrutiny. Nearly all committees are involved will have a close look at the agreement. And there are two things we have to do in the parliament now. The one thing is we will debate and adopt a recommendation for the consent of the agreement. So we will have to decide whether we want to support this agreement or not. And on the other hand, the political groups will prepare a political resolution where we will in detail, say, as a European Parliament, where do we find this agreement positive, but also where are open questions and where are critical aspects which should try to be resolved at a later stage? There are a number of things in this agreement which I also see critically, even though in general I am in favor. Just one example, that the United Kingdom is leaving the Erasmus plus program is something I deeply regret.

SOUNDBITE (German), Bernd LANGE (S&amp;D, DE), Chair INTA; We are now analyzing the agreement. After all, 1250 pages are very intensive. After the first review, I noticed two things, you know, we fought very hard to ensure that the level playing field, the safeguarding of fair competitive conditions is ensured so that there is no dumping in terms of environmental standards, employee rights, and work employment standards. That was achieved. However, one important area that falls out is tax policy. So theoretically it is possible that Great Britain is now setting up a special economic zone in Dover and charging 0 percent tax there. This is of course a competitive advantage and we have to see how we deal with it. And secondly, we have many processes that have not yet been clarified on the European side as to how they will be implemented. For example, the question of whether there is a court of arbitration about different assessments of contractual loyalty, then it is about judges. And we also have to clarify who actually select the judges. So there are a lot of procedural issues that we still have to resolve. And we also have a few open issues; financial services and data protection, where we must certainly ensure that we can safeguard reasonable interests in the interests of European citizens.

SOUNDBITE (German), Bernd LANGE (S&amp;D, DE), Chait INTA, The Parliament, the European Parliament, is basically the only parliament that votes on it; about this agree,ent. And as in any commercial contracts, there are of course risks or perhaps loopholes, which must be checked carefully. So neither the 27 National parliaments nor regional parliaments such as the Wallonia Parliament vote on it. And that's why you have to do it very carefully. And to coordinate that, we have set up a coordinating group. And of course it is also a matter of keeping an eye on the implementation of the agreement and, incidentally, we also enforced the implementation of a very extensive agreement with parliamentary support in the last trade agreement with Vietnam. And now we are assuming that we can sensibly implement this in the agreement with Great Britain.

Datum događanja	14. 01. 2021.
Reference:	I200882V
Format:	16:9 format
Copyright:	© European Union
copyrightYear:	2021

Debriefing on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement at EP INTA/AFET joint committees: illustration shots of the meeting and extracts from the statements by David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), AFET Chair and by Bernd LANGE (S&D, DE), INTA Chair

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