With the post-Brexit trade pact now formally ratified, EU and UK lawmakers must take the lead in rebuilding the cross-Channel relationship, writes John McStravick.
John McStravick is the vice-chair of international affairs at think tank Agora and a researcher at Queen’s University Belfast.
Last week, the curtains closed on the latest act in the Brexit saga. Following the near-unanimous approval of the European Parliament, the European Council finally ratified the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) on Thursday.
More than four years after the British public voted for their country to leave the European Union, Brexit has been delivered and a newly negotiated relationship between the EU and UK exists.
In brief
As the transition period after the Brexit will expire on 31 December 2020, time is running out to reach an agreement. With the introduction of the UK Internal Market Bill, which partly contradicts the regulations in the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement, the British Government has further raised questions on its willingness to commit to and abide by international agreements with the European Union (EU). The future of the trade relationship between the UK and the EU remains open, as does the future of Northern Ireland (“NI”). While the outlook for a trade agreement between the EU and the UK is unclear, the UK is already intensifying efforts to conclude trade agreement with other economic powers, such as in particular the United States (US), making full use of its regained sovereignty to conclude trade agreements with third parties.
Comment
Only a civil servant could think the way to defeat the SNP is to surrender to them on every front
Saying no to Scottish nationalists is anathema to many of the mandarins in Whitehall, but the PM needs to hold firm
20 April 2021 • 1:49pm
Former civil servants, like former members of parliament, can afford to be refreshingly outspoken once they’ve turned their backs on Whitehall. No longer constrained by protocols and procedures or by the strict rules demanding neutrality, they can wax lyrical about the failings of their former political masters.
But it says something profound about the mentality of the civil service when it comes to devolution that one former permanent secretary has used his newfound freedom to criticise Boris Johnson’s apparent drift towards “assertive Unionism”.
THE WESTMINSTER Government must show more respect to devolved parliaments if the union of the United Kingdom is to survive, a former top civil servant has said. Philip Rycroft, a former leading civil servant on devolution from 2012 to 2019 and former permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the European Union, said experts are “puzzled” by the approach taken by the UK Government to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He also said Boris Johnson s government was showing signs of adopting an assertive unionism strategy towards Scotland, which differs from the approach taken by his predecessors in trying to develop a collaborative partnership between governments.
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