The Progress of the UK's Negotiations on EU Withdrawal
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House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee The progress of the UK’s negotiations on EU withdrawal - The Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration Tenth Report of Session 2017–19 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 5 December 2018 HC 1778 Published on 9 December 2018 by authority of the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee The Exiting the European Union Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Exiting the European Union and related matters falling within the responsibilities of associated public bodies. Current membership Hilary Benn MP (Labour, Leeds Central) (Chair) Mr Peter Bone MP (Conservative, Wellingborough) Joanna Cherry MP (Scottish National Party, Edinburgh South West) Sir Christopher Chope MP (Conservative, Christchurch) Stephen Crabb MP (Conservative, Preseli Pembrokeshire) Mr Jonathan Djanogly MP (Conservative, Huntingdon) Richard Graham MP (Conservative, Gloucester) Peter Grant MP (Scottish National Party, Glenrothes) Wera Hobhouse MP (Liberal Democrat, Bath) Andrea Jenkyns MP (Conservative, Morley and Outwood) Stephen Kinnock MP (Labour, Aberavon) Jeremy Lefroy MP (Conservative, Stafford) Mr Pat McFadden MP (Labour, Wolverhampton South East) Craig Mackinlay MP (Conservative, South Thanet) Seema Malhotra MP (Labour (Co-op), Feltham and Heston) Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg MP (Conservative, North East Somerset) Emma Reynolds MP (Labour, Wolverhampton North East) Stephen Timms MP (Labour, East Ham) Mr John Whittingdale MP (Conservative, Maldon) Hywel Williams MP (Plaid Cymru, Arfon) Sammy Wilson MP (Democratic Unionist Party, East Antrim) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees; its powers are set out under a Temporary Standing Order of 4 July 2017. Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/exeucom and in print by Order of the House. Evidence relating to this report is published on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are James Rhys (Committee Clerk), Claire Cozens (Second Clerk), Dr Ariella Huff (Senior Committee Specialist), Duma Langton (Committee Specialist), Adrian Hitchins (Committee Specialist), Julian Mazowiecki (Committee Specialist), Eoin Martin (Committee Specialist), Jonathan Arkless (Committee Specialist), Leo Oliveira (Senior Committee Assistant), Hannah Finer (Senior Committee Assistant), Henry Ayi-Hyde (Committee Assistant), Estelle Currie (Senior Media Officer) and Ben Shave (Media and Communications Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Exiting the European Union Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 7568; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Progress of the negotiations- The Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration 1 Contents Conclusions and recommendations 3 1 Introduction 9 The negotiations: deal 9 This report 10 2 The Withdrawal Agreement 12 Citizens’ rights 12 Backstop 14 Review clause: transition/implementation or the backstop? 20 Financial settlement 22 Governance and dispute resolution 24 3 The Political Declaration on the Framework for the Future Relationship 27 Political Declaration 27 Future EU-UK economic relationship 27 Trade in services 29 UK participation in EU agencies and programmes 30 Government view 31 Security and foreign policy 33 Oversight of negotiations on the future relationship 35 The role of the House 35 The role of the devolved administrations 36 Select Committee scrutiny 37 4 What happens next? 39 Parliament’s role in approving the deal 39 Formal minutes 41 Witnesses 42 Published written evidence 49 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 50 Progress of the negotiations- The Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration 3 Conclusions and recommendations The negotiations: deal 1. The adoption by the Government and the EU of the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on the future relationship is a significant moment. Since the Government triggered Article 50, the negotiations have been conducted against a hard deadline and in circumstances of great political sensitivity, reflecting their critical importance to the UK and its place in the world. Parliament will now vote on whether to give its consent to the deal the Government has brought back from Brussels. In this report, we assess what the deal would mean, and we set out what might happen next, depending on the result of the vote in the House of Commons. However, it is clear that after 20 months of intense negotiations, only the terms of the UK’s exit are fully known; the nature of the future relationship with the European Union is not, and therefore does not provide long-term certainty. (Paragraph 5) Citizens’ rights 2. We recommend that in addition to a digital code, the Government should also provide EU citizens with a physical document. (Paragraph 15) 3. The Citizens’ Rights part of the Withdrawal Agreement is largely unchanged from the version that was published in March 2018. There remains significant uncertainty for UK citizens living and working in EU countries, as the questions of their right to ongoing free movement and recognition of their professional qualifications remain unresolved. This uncertainty will therefore continue into the transition/implementation period and the negotiations on the future relationship. (Paragraph 16) 4. Uncertainty remains for EU citizens in the UK, over whether the Home Office has the capacity to process potentially over three million applications for settled status efficiently and fairly. (Paragraph 17) 5. We note that the proposed structure of the future negotiations includes the ‘mobility’ of citizens in a separate section on ‘socio-economic cooperation.’ We urge the Government and the European Union to prioritise the settlement of these issues as early as possible in the future relationship negotiations, to give clarity and certainty to all those people affected. The Government has not yet set out how UK immigration policy will apply to EU citizens arriving in the UK after December 2020 when the current transition/implementation period is due to end. Despite repeated promises, Ministers have still not published their planned White Paper on future immigration policy, which will form the basis of the negotiations on the socio-economic cooperation part of the future relationship. It would be unacceptable for the Government not to publish the White Paper before the vote on 11 December 2018. (Paragraph 18) 4 Progress of the negotiations- The Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration Backstop 6. The backstop derives from the joint declaration agreed by the UK and the EU in December 2017 which set out three mechanisms for avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. It has been negotiated to ensure that in all circumstances the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland remains as it is now with no checks and no infrastructure. The backstop would involve an EU-UK Single Customs Territory including provisions to ensure a level playing field between the EU and the UK. Northern Ireland would be bound by the full EU Customs Code. This would be the default relationship between the UK and the European Union after the end of the transition/implementation period, unless and until a future economic relationship is agreed that can maintain an open Ireland/Northern Ireland border and protect all parts of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. The proposals put forward so far by the Government to maintain in future both frictionless trade and an open border on the island of Ireland, the ‘Chequers proposals’, have previously been rejected by the European Union as unacceptable. (Paragraph 35) 7. In December 2017, we said that we did not see how it would be possible to reconcile maintaining an open border on the island of Ireland with leaving the Single Market and Customs Union, which would inevitably make the Northern Irish border the UK’s customs and regulatory border with the European Union. Since then, we have seen no realistic, long-term proposals from the Government that would address this. (Paragraph 36) 8. The agreement on a UK-wide backstop is in line with the commitment made in the December 2017 Joint Report to ensure “the same unfettered access for Northern Ireland’s businesses to the whole of the United Kingdom internal market.” Nevertheless, the fact that there will be greater adherence to single market rules in Northern Ireland under the backstop compared to the rest of the UK means that some checks will be necessary for certain goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, although the UK will have the power not to apply checks on goods travelling in the other direction. We also note that some checks already exist for goods crossing the Irish Sea and both sides have agreed that any additional checks should be conducted in the least intrusive way possible. (Paragraph 37) 9. The backstop Protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement means that a Northern-Ireland only backstop would effectively remain in place as the ultimate fall-back, should both sides agree to terminate the EU-UK Single Customs territory. Should the UK decide to leave the Single Customs Territory and seek to negotiate a trade agreement with another country during the operation of the backstop or if the UK were