Speaker: Manfred WEBER (Germany — Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern e.V.)
Political group: Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
Date: 2021-04-27
Debate: The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement - The outcome of EU-UK negotiations (debate)

  Manfred Weber,  on behalf of the PPE Group. – Mr President, today we do the final legal step on the Brexit saga. We create certainty for our businesses and also a clear legal framework for the future relationship between Great Britain and the EU. 
The PPE will support the agreement today and the overwhelming majority in the Committee on International Trade-Committee on Foreign Affairs (INTA—AFET) Joint Committee gave us already a clear idea that the content is a good base for the future. I want to thank also Michel Barnier for his great work. He has always delivered, he has always served the European interests, and also in this regard he delivered and he did a good job for us. In London they recognise now, step by step, that Johnson cannot deliver on his promises, but I think we did our job, to do our best. Thank you so much, Michel, and I also want to thank our colleagues in the House, so Guy Verhofstadt, David McAllister, as the leading personalities, but also the rapporteurs and all colleagues who contributed. 
Our big concern, and Ursula von der Leyen mentioned this, our worry is now the implementation, the question of trust. When I grew up, UK diplomacy was for me a symbol of credibility, a symbol of a treaty-based approach, an interest-based policy. Today when we see the Northern Ireland Protocol implementation and how Johnson behaves, the message is: ‘I don’t care. I don’t care even about my signature.’ That’s the new Great Britain we have as a partner on our side. 
With the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) the Commission will have more power, more tools in the future to push for a proper implementation, and that is needed in the interests of the citizens, of the people of Europe and of Great Britain, as the violence in Northern Ireland shows us. And for us, it’s also a chance, because with the lack of credibility in Great Britain in mind, we, as Europeans, can show you can trust in Europe. 
The tasks ahead of us are clear. First of all implementation, and that’s why the scrutiny process is, for us, a key responsibility. We will continue our job and I thank Ursula von der Leyen for her clear commitment in this regard. The second political message is also clear. We have to tell people Brexit is a lose-lose situation. We have a lot of victims – I want to remind you again of the students who cannot benefit any more from the Erasmus programme – so we have a lot of these victims, so it is a lose-lose situation and we have to be clear, the responsibility is in the field of the Brexiteers. It is in the field of Boris Johnson. The violence of Northern Ireland is the Brexiteers’ violence – they are responsible for this. That has to be clear. 
And the third task, on the long term. I truly believe that we can re-strengthen the relationships in the future. There will be another future government, there will be another generation in Great Britain who will understand that they cannot answer the global challenges as Europeans without a united Europe. It requires a united Europe. We wait. We will welcome this new generation.