Written answers

Thursday, 16 November 2017

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Brexit Negotiations

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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100. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of EU negotiations concerning the British decision to leave the European Union in 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48530/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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At its meeting on 20 October, the European Council welcomed the progress made in the EU-UK negotiations to date but agreed that further work is needed before it can agree that sufficient progress has be made on all of the exit issues - citizens’ rights, the UK’s financial settlement and the issues unique to Ireland – to enable discussions on the framework for a future EU-UK relationship and transitional arrangements to begin.

While it had been hoped that the UK’s position would be more advanced, the European Council outcome was not unexpected. It was clear well in advance that it would not be possible for the EU’s Chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, to recommend that sufficient progress has been made.

I welcome the call by the European Council for work in the negotiations to continue, and its commitment to reassess progress at its next meeting in December. The EU has been clear on what is expected from the UK in phase 1 and now is the time for the UK to make the necessary commitments across all three exit issues.

Importantly, the European Council also agreed to begin internal preparatory discussions on priorities for the future framework for the EU-UK future relationship, and for transitional arrangements. The aim of such discussions, which began at official level last week, is to ensure that the EU is ready to begin phase 2 negotiations with the UK as soon has sufficient progress has been recorded. This should be seen not just as prudent preparation but as a signal of goodwill.

There was some progress on citizens’ rights during the negotiating round of 9/10 November. More work needs to be done but we note the Task Force’s view that the UK has provided useful clarifications that are a good basis for further work. There is however significantly more work to be done on the issue of the financial settlement, where more detail is needed from the UK as to how it will honour its commitments, as promised by the Prime Minister in her Florence speech in September.

On the Irish specific issues, the support of our EU partners for finding solutions to the unique challenges facing the island of Ireland has been strong and consistent throughout this process. The basis of the EU’s position remains as set out in the European Council Guidelines of 29 April and the Task Force’s Guiding Principles paper of 7 September. The EU’s approach to this week’s round of negotiations has not departed from this, but has built upon it.

Overall, more needs to be done before the December European Council. We do not underestimate the challenges ahead but the Government remains hopeful that, with hard work and political will, sufficient progress can be made in the intervening period. I believe that this is the shared view of all EU-27 Member States and I also believe, based on my own discussions and on reports from our Missions, that the British Government is increasingly aware of the steps it needs to take.

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