Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

Eleanor Sharpston, an advocate general, will replaced by a Greek candidate because of Brexit

The last British member of the European court of justice has said she could sue the EU over an attempt by the bloc’s 27 member states to force her out.

Eleanor Sharpston, who is an advocate general to the court in Luxembourg, is set to be replaced by a Greek candidate because of Brexit.

Asked whether she might take the EU to the court of justice over her removal, Sharpston said she was considering her case.

“I have not made up my mind,” she told the Law Gazette. “It may be that the very last service I can render to my court is to see whether there is something I can do to push back against the member states intruding into the court’s autonomy and independence.”

Shortly before the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the member states stated that the mandates of all UK-related members of the bloc’s institutions would automatically end on 31 January.

Sharpston, whose mandate will end in October 2021, has been told that she will only remain in post until her replacement has been appointed. The number of advocates general, who advise the court’s judges, remains fixed at 11.

The EU member states’ position in relation to Sharpston’s tenure is said to be legally doubtful. The court’s statute states the mandate of a serving member can only be terminated for disciplinary reasons, by the court acting unanimously. Sharpston, a fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, and a former joint head of chambers in London, has been at the ECJ since 2006.

The court’s British judge, Christopher Vajda, has already lost his seat despite the UK remaining within the single market and customs union until the end of 2020. There are 27 judges sitting on the ECJ – one for every member state.

Vajda, who would otherwise have stayed a judge on the court until 2024, told the Law Gazette it was a pity the British government could not retain representation through the so-called transition period.

“The UK had a very weak hand,” he said.

David Frost's intervention comes as France warns both sides would 'rip each other apart' in trade talks

Boris Johnson's chief Brexit negotiator will warn Brussels the UK must be able to set its own laws as the battle over the future trading relationship begins in earnest.

In his first public intervention, David Frost will tell an audience in Brussels that anyone who believes the UK could abide by EU rules "fails to see the point of what we are doing".

He will insist that the UK is not bluffing over its opposition to "EU supervision" on so-called level playing field issues, which include vital protections for workers and the environment.

It comes as France's foreign minister warned the two sides would "rip each other apart" in trade talks ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period in December.

Mr Frost will outline the UK's position in lecture at the Université libre de Bruxelles on Monday, in a move that marks a significant departure from the secrecy that surrounded Theresa May's approach to the Brexit negotiations.

PM 'will have to choose alignment or no deal on Brexit'
He was expected to say: “We bring to the negotiations not some clever tactical positioning but the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country.

"It is central to our vision that we must have the ability to set laws that suit us – to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has.

"So to think that we might accept EU supervision on so called level playing field issues simply fails to see the point of what we are doing.

"It isn’t a simple negotiating position which might move under pressure – it is the point of the whole project.

"That’s also why we will not extend the transition beyond the end of this year. At that point we recover our political and economic independence in full – why would we want to postpone it?”

The prime minister's Europe adviser will argue that the UK's standards of regulation are often higher than the EU and that democratic consent "would snap" if either side was forced to accept the other's rules.

"How would you feel if the UK demanded that, to protect ourselves, the EU dynamically harmonise with our national laws set in Westminster and the decisions of our own regulators and courts," Mr Frost will ask.

He will call for "open and fair competition provisions" in any free trade agreement and say both sides must build on other EU trade deals to strike a bargain.

It comes after French foreign minister Jean-Yves le Drian predicted a bruising battle on a post-Brexit deal.

Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference, he said: "I think that on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart.

"But that is part of negotiations, everyone will defend their own interests

Verhofstadt says it would be a ‘hell of a job’ to achieve success using David Frost’s approach

Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator has been accused of treating the EU and the UK as if they are “living on two different planets” after vowing to break all regulatory ties with Brussels.

Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister who has led the European parliament’s approach to Brexit, said it would be a “hell of a job” to secure a successful outcome from the negotiation using the British approach.

“It’s not a good thing that we continue to discuss the future relationship as if the UK and Europe are living on two different planets because the UK market and the market are so close to each other – physically, geographically,” Verhofstadt told reporters during a joint press conference with Sadiq Khan. “And so, these things are so intense that we have to look at it in a little bit of a different way than to simply say, this is a pure free trade deal.”

In a speech in the Belgian capital on Monday night, David Frost, Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator, insisted the UK would not sign up to alignment with EU rules or any supervisory role for the European court of justice, adding that the two sides were “genuinely sovereign equals”.

The EU’s draft negotiating mandate published earlier this month had sought non-regression from the UK on environmental, social and workers standards and “dynamic alignment” with Brussels’s state aid and competition rules.

Frost said the government would only accept similar commitments to those contained in the trade agreement with Canada, under which there is an obligation to avoid trade distortions through reducing regulatory standards or allowing excessive industrial subsidies. He added that the UK was willing to trade on WTO terms, meaning significant tariffs on goods.

Khan, who was on a visit to Brussels for meetings with senior officials, including the EU’s chief negotiator, voiced his own concerns about the UK government’s direction of travel while conceding that a campaign to rejoin the bloc was unrealistic in the “short to medium term”.

“I accept we’ve now left the European Union. I suspect we will be ending the transition period at the end of December,” Khan said. “I think the key thing is in the short term, and medium term for us to make Brexit a success. You know I don’t want my country to suffer.”

With the backing of Verhofstadt, the mayor of London, who is up for re-election this year, said the next best thing for Britons would be for the EU to offer “associate EU citizenship” for those who wanted it.

The idea, first raised in 2016 by Verhofstadt, would involve continued freedom of movement and residence around the bloc for those who wished to retain such rights. Such a status would also protect rights in healthcare, welfare and workplace conditions and likely the right to vote in European parliament elections.

The chances of such an initiative making headway in the negotiations are extremely limited as it would be unlawful under EU treaties.

Google is planning to move its British users’ accounts out of the control of European Union privacy regulators, placing them under U.S. jurisdiction instead, sources said.

Brussels aide says UK cannot have similar trade pact because of proximity to member states

Downing Street’s hopes of a Canada-style trade deal with the EU have been dealt a further blow after a senior adviser to Brussels’ chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the bloc’s relationship with the North American country was a “different ball game”.

As the two sides prepare for the start of negotiations next month, Stefaan De Rynck highlighted the UK’s proximity to Brussels compared with Canada as a key factor, as well as warning that the trade talks could get “rather difficult”.

The key aide also repeated what has now become an EU mantra that a tariff-free, quota-free deal is not possible without the UK committing to a “level playing field” on state subsidies, environmental protections and workers’ rights.
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The UK will roll out new "iconic" blue passports for a post-Brexit Britain in March — but they will be produced in Poland by a French-Dutch company.

The announcement that the company Gemalto had won the contract to produce the passports caused controversy in 2018. The UK government said the final stages of manufacturing will take place in the UK to "ensure no personal data leaves the country."
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The newly-elected environment secretary has failed to offer a clear commitment that the import of chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef will be off the table in any trade deal with the US.

George Eustice, who was appointed in the recent reshuffle, said the government had "no plans" to change the ban on the two products but did not give a guarantee on the issue, which is expected to prove a crunch point in trade talks with Donald Trump’s administration.

His predecessor Theresa Villiers gave a firm commitment that British markets would not be flooded with chlorine washed chicken, which is legal in the US.

Mr Eustice did not explicitly say he would keep her pledge, instead saying American producers tended to use “lactic acid washes” on poultry rather than chlorine.

It comes amid tensions between Washington and London over Boris Johnson's decision to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei a role in the building of the UK's 5G infrastructure - despite protests from Mr Trump.

Asked to make a commitment, Mr Eustice told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday: “The truth is that it’s already illegal in this country to sell chlorine washed chicken or indeed hormone fed beef. That’s in our legislation.

“But the important thing would I say is we believe very passionately in this country about our food standards, our animal welfare standards.

"We have worked very hard over the last 20 years to build quite a sophisticated market where there’s a lot of consumer confidence in the provenance of our food, and how it was produced and the safety of our food.

“And we’re absolutely clear in the government that we will not take risks - either with our food standards, and when it comes to animal welfare, we will be projecting our views on animal welfare on the international stage.

“It’s where the UK that’s been a world leader in animal welfare, particularly farmed animal welfare and we want to bring the rest of the world, along with us.”

Asked again if chlorinated chicken was a red line, the Tory minister said: “Well, I’m not quite sure why the US would make such demands because actually chlorine washes on the chicken are very outdated technology and it’s not really used by the US anymore anyway.

“What they tend to use these days are lactic acid washes.”

Mr Eustice went on: “What I’m saying is, we won’t make any moves on our standards, we’ve got a clear position in this country that it is illegal to sell chlorine washed chicken, illegal to sell beef treated with hormones.

“We have no plans to change those things but equally as I would say, it’s not the case that the US currently use chlorine washed chicken anyway.”

He later told the BBC that there was space for a "sensible discussion" on the use of lactic acid as a wash for chicken, which is used on beef in the UK.

Ministers’ previous refusal to rule out banning chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef had fuelled fears about food standards being lowered after Brexit.

Concerns raised after reports negotiating team told to devise plans to ‘get around’ protocol in withdrawal agreement

Reneging on the special Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland will risk trade deals with both the EU and the US, experts have warned.

Concern has been raised after Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiating team has reportedly been ordered to come up with plans to “get around” the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement which includes checks on goods and food going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Former Irish ambassador to the EU Bobby McDonagh said reneging on it would have serious consequences including posing a risk to a future deal with Washington where support for Ireland is considerable.

“If UK gov were to renege on its legal obligations under Brexit withdrawal agreement to protect Good Friday agreement it would have many consequences. One would be the end of any prospect of a UK-US trade deal,” he said in a tweet.

And Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law at Cambridge University said there would be immediate consequences if the UK did not show good faith both legally and reputationally.

“If we renege on the terms of the withdrawal agreement, that will trigger the dispute resolution arrangements in the withdrawal agreement.

“But it is not just the legal issue, it would also damage Britain’s reputation in other trade negotiations because it would raise the matter of whether Britain can be trusted,” she said.

“If, as some comments suggest, it were to renege on its legal obligations to carry our checks on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland, it is hard to see what value the EU, or indeed any country, would see in a future trade deal with the UK. If the UK were to walk away from the binding provisions designed to preserve the balances of the Good Friday agreement, which it agreed to after lengthy negotiations, there would seem in particular to be no prospect of any UK/US trade deal being ratified by Congress,” McDonagh said.

A formal dispute could see elements of the Brexit deal, such as fisheries, or tariff-free trade taken off the table in a tit-for-tat that could poison the next five months of critical talks on the UK’s future trading relationship with the EU.

The Northern Ireland protocol kicks in from 1 January 2021 whether there is a trade deal with the EU or not.

But Johnson’s chief EU negotiator, David Frost, and his team have been ordered to draw up plans to “get around” the protocol in the withdrawal agreement “so the prime minister can play hardball with Brussels over trade”, the Sunday Times reported. According to the story, Suella Braverman, the new attorney-general, was appointed because Geoffrey Cox, her predecessor, was not willing to take such action.

Barnard said one of the issues is the mystery over the size, nature or makeup of the joint UK-EU committees that will thrash out and agree the precise list of controls and checks that will be needed in Northern Ireland from January next year.

“There may be an element of grand-standing here as nobody yet knows who is on the joint committee or the other committees, when they will be set up, or how often they meet.

“Maybe this is the foothills of the battle over what the joint committee and specialised committee will look like as they will have considerable powers,” said Barnard.

According to Whitehall sources the top committee known as the “joint committee” is expected to be established by the end of March. It will decide on the overall implementation of the deal with a handful of “specialised committees” and “working groups” set up beneath it to work on issues such as the Northern Ireland checks, EU citizens rights and Gibraltar.

Under the terms of the Brexit deal signed off in January, the UK and the EU have already agreed to a series of checks between Britain and Northern Ireland as part of the breakthrough agreement to avoid a hard border between NI and the Irish Republic. That list includes health and safety checks on food and live animals entering the region from Britain.

To guard against any sub-EU standard goods including factory components and electronics goods such as mobile phones, seeping into the republic and therefore into the single market there will also be regulatory checks.

The EU will demand the UK maintains a ban on chlorinated chicken as the price for a trade agreement with Brussels, in a move that protects European meat exports and creates an obstacle to a deal with Donald Trump.

On the recommendation of France, a clause has been inserted into the EU’s negotiating mandate to insist that both sides maintain “health and product sanitary quality in the food and agriculture sector”, according to a copy leaked to the Guardian.

The paragraph, in a newly entitled section of the document for the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, called “Environment and health” provides a catch-all insurance for the EU that certain methods of food production – from the use of pesticides, endocrine disrupters or chlorine washes for poultry – will not be used in the UK.

At the weekend, George Eustice, the new UK environment secretary, refused to guarantee that the government would not allow the importation of chlorine-washed chicken as part of a trade deal with the US.

Eustice’s stance has caused concern in the UK where the National Farmers’ Union called for other countries to trade with Britain “on our terms”. The EU also fears that current suppliers of meat to the UK could be undercut by US imports.

It is understood that France’s proposal to change the negotiating mandate had full backing from other member states.

It was agreed last Friday while other “level playing field” provisions only received unanimous support on Monday from EU ambassadors.

EU ministers will sign off on the 46-page negotiating mandate for Barnier on Tuesday before the start of talks next week.

Diss time last year we were authoritatively informed by the E.U. that if the UK left the union, they would become a pariah state of no consequence ....

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It comes after reports Treasury official Dr Tim Leunig claimed the food sector was not “critically important” to the country’s economy – and that agriculture and fisheries “certainly isn’t”.

In leaked emails published in The Mail on Sunday, the economic adviser to the chancellor Rishi Sunak is reported to have said ministers could follow the example of Singapore which is “rich without having its own agricultural sector”.

The agriculture and fishing sectors represent less than one per cent of the UK’s economy respectively. But rural and coastal communities voted out in large numbers during the 2016 referendum after the Vote Leave campaign argued that farmers and fishermen would would be better off once free of EU rules.
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Last week, environment secretary George Eustice came in for criticism after he refused to rule out chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef being imported from the US as part of a trade agreement with Washington.

Fishermen also fear promises made to them on increased catch quotas and controlling who fishes in British waters could be traded in exchange for market access during the talks with the EU, which are due to begin next week.