EU leaders took less than a minute to approve the UK’s transition deal yesterday, paving the way for trade negotiations to start.
The Scottish Government’s Brexit Minister Mike Russell said that with the real hard work just about to begin, it was imperative that there was input from ministers north of the Border.
On Thursday it will be exactly one year until Brexit, and Theresa May is urgently trying to sort out how the future relationship between the EU and the UK will look.
The Prime Minister believes a draft agreement is achievable by October.
“I believe it is in the best interest of both the UK and the EU that we get a deal that actually is in the interests of both,” May told journalists as she left the summit in Brussels yesterday.
The problem for May is that she cannot have one without the other -–for the transition deal, as agreed yesterday, to go ahead, she must also get agreement on the trade deal.
That agreement needs to come from both Brussels and, crucially, MPs in the House of Commons.
Britain’s negotiators, led by David Davis, need to find a deal acceptable to Brussels, to MEPs, to the leaders of the 27 member states of the EU and to the hard-core of Brexiteers in the Tory party.
And it’s all or nothing. If the deal is scuppered it could force the UK to crash out of Europe.
Avoiding that means finding agreement on the Irish border pleasing both the government in Dublin and the unionists of the DUP in Belfast, who shore up the minority Tory government in London.
Last-minute wrangling by Spain means May also has to find common cause with the EU and the Spanish on Gibraltar, with Madrid, who lay claim to the Rock, looking for further concessions,.
If May can somehow make all that work, then she will be looking to secure a free trade agreement with no tariffs on goods and a close partnership on security and defence.
There was, however, some wriggle room put into the draft agreement by Brussels.
What has been dubbed the “evolution clause” suggests the EU will reconsider its offer to Britain if the UK Government compromises on its red lines and thinks again about remaining in the customs union, sticking with the same regulations as the other member states.
The EU fears competition from the UK – that the Tory Government might turn the UK into a low-tax haven with little regulation and far lower standards, attracting firms who want cheap labour and plenty of profit.
The terms of the draft transition agreement, which lasts until December 2020, mean the UK can negotiate, sign and ratify its own trade deals, and in a concession to Brussels, will see EU citizens arriving in Britain enjoying the same rights and guarantees as those who arrive before Brexit.
Russell said: “Scottish interests must not be swept aside as they have been so far. The Scottish Government must play a meaningful part in the UK’s negotiating position.
“The EU guidelines for the next phase of talks show precisely why remaining within the single market – the world’s most valuable market-place and around eight times the size of the UK – must be put back on the table.”
Meanwhile, the stooshie over the blue passports and the Home Office’s decision to give the contract for making them to a French company continued.
George Foulkes told the House of Lords: “On both sides of this House, there is a desire that this ought to be reviewed – in the name not just of security, but of national pride.”
Michael Forsyth of Drumlean bemoaned the decision to give preference to a state company over a company which has to make a profit and employs people in the UK.
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