Debate: The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement - The outcome of EU-UK negotiations
Date: TUESDAY, 27 APRIL 2021
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

Many of you have underlined that this is an historic fact in itself. We are now called upon, together with the United Kingdom, to write the next chapter of our common history. But before coming to the future, I need to start by thanking you for the four—month scrutiny work by all parliamentary committees and, beyond that, to thank you for your continuous support during the negotiations of both the TCA and the Withdrawal Agreement and now their implementation. Many of you worked very hard throughout this period, but please allow me to thank, in particular, the co-chairs of the United Kingdom Coordination Group (UKCG), Mr David McAllister and Mr Bernd Lange, and all the members of the Coordination Group and, of course, our two co—rapporteurs, Mr Christophe Hansen and Mr Andreas Schieder, who took over the file from our great colleague who is now working in the Dutch Parliament, Ms Kati Piri. As I said, and I underline again, many more Members of the European Parliament have been doing thorough work on the TCA scrutiny, while the President of this House and the leaders of all political groups have been equally coordinating this exercise at the highest political level. As we have repeated many times, unity among institutions and among Member States is, and must remain, a cornerstone of our EU—UK relations. Only when we as the EU present a united front can we interact with such a close partner as effectively as possible.  This scrutiny work on the implementation of the TCA is, of course, far from over. I take note of your strong support for the TCA today and in the votes in the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and the Committee on International Trade (INTA). I hope it will be reflected in the plenary voting result as well, but I also take good note of your concerns and remarks. Mr Weber, Mr Azmani and Mr Lamberts called for the restoration of trust and the full implementation of the TCA, the Withdrawal Agreement and especially the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland as soon as possible, and, of course, under the condition that this Parliament grants its consent to the TCA and the Council then adopts it. We need to accelerate the joint work with the UK on the implementation of the TCA and its instruments.  To do this, I have to say that your scrutiny work and identification of your points of concern will be helpful to me and will reinforce my negotiating position. Therefore, honourable Members, your work will continue as well. I count on our continuous close cooperation for the monitoring of the European Parliament and this is why the Commission has committed to giving full effect to the Treaty prerogatives of the European Parliament in the statement officially submitted to Parliament. Transparency and trust will be key to keeping our unity. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement is strongly connected to the Withdrawal Agreement and we will, therefore, now accelerate our constructive engagement with our UK counterparts to ensure the full implementation of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. As John Hume was already quoted by our President, let me do it again, because he was absolutely right. There are no easy answers and no quick—fix solutions. Therefore, our aim is – and must be – to find mutually agreeable pathways towards full implementation of the Protocol, as was highlighted by Ms Iratxe García Pérez, Mr Lamberts and Mr Hansen. We have to work at all levels, as was suggested by Mr Kelleher, and here I want to comment on the very constructive and good work which is done by our co-chairs on the specialised committees on Ireland and Northern Ireland. That being said, and as the President has already indicated, the TCA provides for more effective means, like cross—retaliation and the suspension of market access, in the event of a breach of the good faith obligation to implement the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. Brexit has, unfortunately, revived the tensions on the island of Ireland, as was highlighted by Mr Schirdewan, Mr Kelly and many others. But Ms Fitzgerald reminded us that the Protocol is the only viable solution to guarantee peace, stability and prosperity there by protecting the Good Friday Agreement in all its dimensions, avoiding a hard border and upholding the integrity of our single market at the same time. I am planning to intensify my outreach to Northern Ireland, to listen to the stakeholders and to civil society, and to help them turn the change into a real opportunity, as was proposed by Mr MacManus and Mr Scholtz. Indeed, Northern Ireland is in a unique position to be part of both the UK’s internal market and the EU’s single market, so let’s turn this uniqueness into real opportunity. I would also like to tell honourable Members that I understand and I acknowledge the attention that honourable Members drew today to the question of citizens’ rights, data adequacy, fisheries and the supply of medicines. We are working very intensely on all of them. I listened very carefully to your comments and concerns and will be in very close touch with all of you. I am also convinced that the singling out of five Member States on such a sensitive issue as work visas definitely falls into the category where we need to seek corrective action from our UK partners. If we are not able to resolve it by other means, I will insist that it be put on the agenda of the first session of the Partnership Council we will have once the TCA is approved and ratified.  Many of you have underscored that the TCA is very important for our economy and businesses to make sure that they are able to trade with the UK without tariffs and quotas. At the same time, the TCA provides for unprecedented level-playing-field obligations to protect our businesses from unfair competition when it comes to issues like unlawful state aid or the lowering of labour or environmental standards. This is underpinned by an effective governance system, allowing for unilateral measures by the parties in the event of a breach of the obligations by the parties.  It is indeed important that the TCA starts to be fully applied in practice. The ratification will mark an end point to the long negotiation period and the beginning of another chapter in our relations with the UK, a relationship that will be framed by a strong trade and cooperation deal, but will not be limited to it. Apart from all this, the UK remains a key partner and a like-minded ally when it comes to issues like climate change and relations with other partners around the globe. Although not even the best agreement can amount to advantages of being part of the European family and although there are limits to what we can do with a third country, we both have an interest to explore the possibilities to the maximum and build on our inevitably common future to face our common challenges ahead. Thank you very much for this profound debate. I hope that this debate clearly confirmed how important the TCA is for all of us. Therefore, I would make a plea for your positive consent vote.