Thank you so much for inviting me, and I give a warm greeting from Brussels. It is a great honour to address the committee.
I will kick off with a five-minute introduction on where we stand with regard to the on-going negotiations. As the convener mentioned, I chair the UK co-ordination group in the European Parliament. That has replaced the Brexit steering group, which, as you might remember, was led by Guy Verhofstadt, who is a Belgian Liberal MEP.
I will begin by outlining how different the negotiations are from any other trade negotiations that the EU has ever held, due to the unprecedented level of interconnectedness, the geographic proximity and the already tight alignment of the UK with EU regulatory standards. In order to address in the best possible way the interests of EU citizens and UK citizens, the European Union has adopted a negotiating framework that envisages a strong and comprehensive partnership between both sides. We deliberately talk about a “partnership”, because a partnership is more than just a mere free trade agreement.
The approach in Brussels takes into account the wishes of the UK Government to affirm clearly British independence and sovereignty, as well as taking into account geographical proximity and how interconnected the EU and the UK are after 46 years of successful UK membership of the EU. From the start, the EU has made it clear that the more privileges and rights the UK seeks, the more obligations are linked. There will be no more cherry picking. We experienced that over many years and, in the end, that was not satisfactory for both sides. I say that as somebody who feels very close at heart to the UK but who sees that, unfortunately, our ambition has not been matched by that of the UK Government—at least until now.
Nevertheless, I welcome the belated publication by the UK Government of a series of legal texts covering a number of areas. I take that as an important step in improving transparency and accountability for citizens.
We want to have an open debate and discussion, so I will be frank. After three rounds of negotiations, no real progress has been achieved, with the exception of limited openings on an equally limited number of areas. That is disappointing. Yesterday, we had a joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Committee on International Trade by remote videoconference, and colleagues across all party lines echoed that they are disappointed that progress has not been made and that we are now under enormous time pressure.
As the UK Government is still determined not to extend the transition period, we have three things to do in parallel by 31 December. First, we need to implement the withdrawal agreement, which is utterly important for the negotiations of the future partnership. The EU will be vigilant regarding the implementation of the withdrawal agreement, and the European Parliament, in particular, will closely scrutinise that aspect of the negotiations. In the context of the withdrawal agreement, the protocol on Northern Ireland of course remains the biggest challenge, considering its technical complexity and political sensitivity.
Secondly, we have to prepare our businesses and citizens on both sides for the changes that will take place on 1 January 2021 whether or not we have an agreement.
The third thing that we have to do is negotiate the future agreement. We still believe that it is wise to negotiate a comprehensive economic and security partnership with an overall governance framework, as agreed by the EU and the UK in the political declaration of 17 October 2019. As you well know, there are four fields on which we are still at odds, which are the level playing field, fisheries, co-operation on justice and police issues and governance overall.
The next negotiating round will start on 1 June. We will be debriefed by Michel Barnier after 4 June, which is the final day of the negotiating round. After the negotiating round, both sides will have to analyse whether it makes sense to hold as planned the high-level conference in June and what it will be about. It was planned that the high-level conference would take stock of where we were after a few months of negotiations, and, if it takes place, it should also indicate where our priorities lie in the second half of the year.
At the moment, there is a pessimistic mood here in Brussels. Not only the European Commission but the member states and the European Parliament share the analysis that there is a considerable lack of tangible progress on the main issues. We are under enormous time pressure; we understand that the UK Government is not willing to ask for an extension of the transition period, which means that the clock is ticking fast and we need to make progress soon.
Thank you again for inviting me. It is an honour for me, as the son of somebody who came from Glasgow to Germany in the 1950s, to talk to representatives of the Scottish Parliament. I am still the proud holder of a British passport, I love visiting Scotland and I have been to your Parliament many times. I want to underline the good work that you are all doing; I follow Scottish politics as well as I can from Brussels. I hope to answer as many of your questions as I can.