During the meeting of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) in the EP in Brussels, MEPs exchange of views on the state of play of the negotiations on Brexit with Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Parliament's coordinator for the negotiations on the UK withdrawal from the EU, and Danuta Maria HÜBNER (EPP, PL), member of the Parliament's Brexit Steering Group. Statements by Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE), Danuta Maria HÜBNER (EPP, PL), György SCHÖPFLIN (EPP, HU), Mercedes BRESSO (S&D, IT) and Diane DODDS (NI, UK).

Brussels

exchange of views

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

Brexit (T)

article 50 of the Lisbon treaty (T)

meeting

DODDS, Diane (NI, UK)

SCHÖPFLIN, György (EPP, HU)

HÜBNER, Danuta Maria (EPP, PL)

BRESSO, Mercedes (S&D, IT)

Committee on Constitutional Affairs

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Article 50 TEU): extracts from the exchange of views on the state of play of the negotiations on Brexit with Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE, BE) and Maria HÜBNER (EPP, PL)

Arrival of Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE,BE), entering the meeting room (3 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Danuta Maria H&#220;BNER (EPP, PL), Chair President launching the debate on the state of play of the negotiations on Brexit.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, The first work stream is to translate the progress report that has been adopted in December into a formal text of a withdrawal agreement and that will be done formally tomorrow by the European Commission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, We don&rsquo;t want that the whole issue of citizens' rights - that will be applicable after the withdrawal and in our point of you after the transition - becomes a bureaucratic nightmare, that's becomes a difficult procedure that in in fact you&rsquo;re creating problems for the EU citizens living in Britain as we don&rsquo;t want also that's becomes a nightmare for the UK citizens, UK nationals that are continue to live on the Continent.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, The Protocol on Ireland it&rsquo;s for us key as Parliament that there will be in the future - whatever the outcome of the negotiations are will be - that there is no divergence in norms, rules, standards between the North of Ireland and the and the Irish Republic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, When we said the EU aquis is continued is the whole EU aquis. It's not only the EU aquis for goods and for services, it's also the EU aquis for citizens. We will not accept that after withdrawal and before transition there will be some 'specific' treatment for the citizens.

SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, The basic principle in the text will be that for the future relationship we want to use article 8 and article 217 of the Treaty as bases and that we see in fact four pillars of cooperation possible : the 1st on trade and economics, the 2nd on thematic cooperation, like innovation, 3dr is Justice and Home Affairs , or what we call internal security cooperation between UK and EU and the 4th is Foreign Affairs and External Security cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gy&#246;rgy SCH&#214;PFLIN (EPP, HU), What kind of a dispute resolution system will be acceptable to both sides?

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Mercedes BRESSO (S&amp;D, IT), Are we going to have only have a purely trade agreement because if you have a trade agreement it's set on stone and only changes if you amended it. But in the case of the European Economic Area countries legislation has to be tailored to take into account the community aquis. So I don&rsquo;t see what would exist in between the only thing in between is Switzerland (agreements) and that&rsquo;s chaotic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Diane DODDS (NI, UK), For Northern Ireland there should be no regulatory diverges - and I&rsquo;m quoting because I wrote it down exactly - between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This is an absolutely intolerable and interference of the internal affairs of the United Kingdom. And one which is completely unacceptable was not acceptable in the issue of Spain and Catalonia but that seems to be acceptable for the UK from the European Union point of view.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Ram&#243;n J&#193;UREGUI ATONDO (S&amp;D, ES), We should be working towards the best agreement possible with the UK because that&rsquo;s key for Europe, key for our future. In geopolitical terms it would be bad if the UK were to build a different geopolitical alliance with the US, that we don&rsquo;t have a ties on trade issues or that we have tax divergence.