Brexit: European Commission recommends draft negotiating directives for next phase of the Article 50 negotiations

20 December 2017

Following the guidelines adopted by the European Council (Art 50) on 15 December, the European Commission has sent a Recommendation to the Council (Art 50) to begin discussions on the next phase of the orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

The draft negotiating directives, which supplement the negotiating directives from May 2017, set out additional details on possible transitional arrangements. These include, in particular, the following:

• There should be no "cherry picking": The United Kingdom will continue to participate in the Customs Union and the Single Market (with all four freedoms). The Union acquis should continue to apply in full to and in the United Kingdom as if it were a Member State. Any changes made to the acquis during this time should automatically apply to the United Kingdom.
• All existing Union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures will apply, including the competence of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
• The United Kingdom will be a third country as of 30 March 2019. As a result, it will no longer be represented in Union institutions, agencies, bodies and offices.
• The transition period needs to be clearly defined and precisely limited in time. The Commission recommends that it should not last beyond 31 December 2020.

The Recommendation also recalls the need to translate into legal terms the results of the first phase of the negotiations, as outlined in the Commission's Communication and Joint Report. It underlines that work needs to be completed on all withdrawal issues, including those not yet addressed in the first phase, such as the overall governance of the Withdrawal Agreement and substantive issues such as goods placed on the market before the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU.

Next steps: In line with the European Council's guidelines of 15 December, the General Affairs Council (Art 50) will adopt these additional negotiating directives on transitional arrangements in January 2018.

Press release

Related article on POLITICO: Michel Barnier: Post-Brexit transition to end December 2020

The EU wants a post-Brexit transition period to end on December 31, 2020, its chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters.

The European Commission on Wednesday put forward a draft negotiating mandate that calls for a transition period following the U.K.’s formal withdrawal from the EU, during which London would have to fulfill all obligations while losing all voting rights in the bloc.

Speaking at a news conference, Barnier said that on the day of withdrawal the EU’s international agreements, including its existing free trade agreements and accords with other countries, would no longer apply to the U.K. and London should take steps to renegotiate them. [...]

“Legally speaking, mechanically, the day after the U.K. has left the EU institutions, the U.K. will no longer be covered by our international agreements,” Barnier said. “They will be leaving approximately 750 agreements, which we have signed.”

Barnier also said that the framework of the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU, presumably a robust trade deal and political association agreement, must be known by October, to give time for ratification of a withdrawal agreement by the European Parliament and the British Parliament and so it is clear what follows the transition. [...]

Full article on POLITICO

 

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