McAllister on EU-UK talks: Full support for the EU Chief Negotiator
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29. Mai 2020 In Aktuell, EN

McAllister on EU-UK talks: Full support for the EU Chief Negotiator

The Chair of Parliament’s United Kingdom Coordination Group, David McAllister (EPP, DE), made the following statement on Friday after a meeting with EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier.

“The EU-UK negotiations have so far yielded little progress. Instead, over the past few days, the EU was attacked over its insistence that the current negotiations must translate the Political Declaration, which Prime Minister Johnson personally negotiated line-by-line last autumn, into a legal text. The UK Government would damage trust and would seriously undermine the negotiations if it were to renege on what it signed up to less than one year ago. The European Parliament will not consent to an agreement that departs from the Political Declaration.”

After a vote in the Committees of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on 12 June, the European Parliament will vote on a resolution at the 17-19 June plenary session to sum up its stance ahead of the milestone High-Level Conference with the UK.

“As stated in several resolutions, Parliament will not consent to an agreement that does not include provisions on level playing field, fundamental rights, robust governance and a stable framework for fisheries.

It also considers the full implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, co-signed by the UK Prime Minister, to be crucial.

Today we reiterate our full support for the EU Chief Negotiator, who has a clear political mandate from the European Council and the overwhelming support of the European Parliament to negotiate an ambitious agreement that covers all the areas and sectors included in the Political Declaration. Not only the ones in which the UK government is interested.

The EU cannot make an agreement at the cost of undermining its internal market or the interests and competitiveness of our companies and industries. Meanwhile, in the UK legal proposals, there are many examples of areas where the UK wants to keep access to the single market whilst not abiding by its rules: it asks for almost complete freedom of movement for service providers, the assimilation of UK auditors, the recognition of professional qualifications and electricity interconnection. The EU has provided none of these in any of its agreements with third countries.

As the UK is no longer an EU member, it cannot have similar access to EU databases as member states. For the same reason, the UK cannot enjoy the right to decide on financial services equivalence or the adequacy of data protection, which are EU sovereign competences.

The UK has taken a sovereign decision to leave the EU, its internal market and customs union and this will have concrete consequences as of 1 January 2021.”