The house of Commons of the United Kingdom will be voting on this Tuesday evening on the withdrawal agreement negotiated high fight with the european Union by Theresa May, but reviled both by the Brexiters by the pro-european. Reject this text the risk of compromising the Brexit and undermine democracy, said the First minister in a factory in the bastion of pro-Brexit from Stoke-on-Trent (central England).
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The text, a pad of 585 pages, with many protocols and other annexes, unpick in a novel way the links forged during more than 40 years between the EU and the United Kingdom. Of the transitional period provided for after the divorce to the bill that would have set London: here are the main points of the “treaty of withdrawal,” which has been approved by the 27 countries of the European Union, outside Uk.
• Transition
On march 30, 2019, the Uk will no longer be a member State of the EU, but it will keep all of even a foot in the Union if the divorce agreement is adopted. The text provides for a transitional period until 31 December 2020, during which the British will continue to apply the european rules and benefit from it. They will also have to continue to pay their financial contribution, but not sit in the institutions and are not participating in the decisions.
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The two parties have agreed that this transition could be extended only once and by mutual agreement, for a period of up to one or two years”, i.e. until the end of 2022 at the maximum. The purpose of the transition is to avoid a sudden break, particularly for economic actors and to give the time in London and the EU to negotiate their future relationship, in particular by means of a commercial agreement.
• financial Regulation
The Uk is committed to honour the commitments made in the framework of the budget current multi-annual programme (2014-2020), which also covers the period of transition. It will benefit in return from the european structural funds and the common agricultural policy.
The text does not give numbers for the invoice, but a method of calculation. The uk government estimates this amount to be between 40 and 45 billion euros -figures not confirmed EU side-but it will be greater if the transition period extends beyond 2020.
• The irish problem
The treaty provides a “safety net” (“backstop” in English) to avoid the return to a physical border between the british province of Northern Ireland and Ireland, in order to preserve the agreements of 1998 which brought an end to decades of unrest and bloody. It would be a solution of last resort that would only come into force after the transition period, and only if no better solution was found by mid-2020, between London and Brussels.
This mechanism is controversial is to create a “single customs territory”, including the EU and the United Kingdom, in which there would be no quotas or customs duties for industrial and agricultural goods. This is designed to prevent the recovery of a “boundary last” between the two Irelands, while ensuring that a border will not appear, in fact, in the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom – which would have been the case if only Northern Ireland had been integrated into the “customs territory”. Northern Ireland has a special status: it will remain aligned on a limited number of single market rules “essential to avoid a border lasts” in Ireland. It includes, for example, sanitary standards for the conduct of veterinary checks. If the “backstop” is applied, it will take a joint decision to put an end to it.
• Fishing
The agreement provides that european fishermen will keep their access to the territorial waters of the british and that the British would remain subject to quotas for european fishing during the transition period. But he made it clear that it will be necessary to conclude an agreement at the latest by mid-2020 to address this issue highly sensitive.
• Rights of citizens
“The citizens of europe established in the United Kingdom and the British established in a member State of the Union before the end of the transition period may continue to live their lives as before in their country of residence” (where they stayed at least five years, editor’s note) promised to the chief negotiator of the EU, Michel Barnier.
More than four million citizens (3.2 million Europeans in the Uk and 1.2 million Britons on the continent) will be able to continue to study, work, receive benefits and bring their families.
• monitoring of the agreement
The treaty of withdrawal provides for the creation of a joint committee to resolve differences of interpretation of the agreement. It will be entered if a dispute occurs between the two parties. It may turn to enter, in case of persistent disagreement, an arbitration panel, whose decision will be binding. For any disagreements that would involve a question of interpretation of Union law, it is the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), which will be competent.
