Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex
Last week the process of
negotiating the future relationship between the UK and the EU formally began.
On the EU side, the Commission published the proposed negotiation
mandate (an annex to a decision)
for the future EU/UK relationship. For the UK, the government published a parliamentary
statement.
There was also a speech by the
Prime Minister, but this was intended for a domestic audience: amateur
dramatics, not professional trade policy. Suffice it to say that: the withdrawal
agreement does not govern trade between the UK (other than Northern
Ireland) and the EU after the end of the transition period it sets out
(discussed here),
and the minimal trade arrangements between the EU and Australia cannot honestly
be described as an “Australia deal”. One might as well refer to a food bank as
an “Australian Waitrose”, or a desperate dash to the bushes as an “Australian
toilet”. Indeed, Australia is seeking to improve on these minimal arrangements
by negotiating
a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU.
The following analysis summarises
the proposed EU negotiating mandate, further comparing it to the mutually
agreed political
declaration on the future relationship (which I previously annotated here).
It explains where the EU position has departed from or elaborated upon the
political declaration. Obviously, the EU position differs in some respects –
but not all – from the UK position, which is why negotiations are expected to
be difficult.
Legal basics
On the EU side, the first thing
to notes is that this is a proposal
for a negotiation mandate. Under Article
218 TFEU, which sets out how the EU negotiates international treaties,
first of all the Commission proposes a mandate to negotiate with a non-EU
country. Next, the Council, ie Member States' ministers, decides on adoption of
that mandate. Under the Commission’s proposal the ministers would have to act
unanimously (more on that below).
The Council is expected to
complete this next step later in February, after ministers and national civil
servants representing them examine the proposal. It’s possible (and common) for
the Council to change the text of a negotiating mandate proposed by the
Commission – although such changes are unlikely to be radical. In fact, it seems certain that the
Council will amend this proposal (for the text of the main decision as
agreed, see here;
the more detailed annex is not yet agreed).
After that point the third step
starts – the formal negotiations with the UK, in which the Commission is the
negotiator. Note that the Commission will
have a mandate from Member States when doing so: Michel Barnier will
not be on a frolic of his own. (This point was often missed during the
withdrawal agreement negotiations). As the proposed mandate states, during the
negotiations the Commission will be reporting back to a 'special committee' of
Member States’ officials. In fact this committee was set
up recently. It's made up of Member States' officials who keep an eye on
the Commission as negotiator. This isn't unique to these talks; it's a
requirement in Article 218 of the Treaties as regards all international treaty
negotiations.
There's no formal role for the European
Parliament at this point, although it can pass non-binding resolutions (such as
the one passed earlier
this week). It will have a veto over the final agreement. At first sight
the proposal doesn't take a view on whether ratification by each national
parliament will be needed. This will depend on the content of the final text,
as the Commission’s Q and
As explicitly point out.
Timing of the talks
The transition period in the
withdrawal agreement expires at the end of the year, meaning that the de facto current treatment of the UK as
a Member State of the EU will then expire. While the withdrawal agreement’s
provisions on issues like citizens’ rights and Northern Ireland will still
apply, most of the relationship between the UK and EU will end at that point
unless new treaties replace it.
Although the transition period
could be extended by one or two years if both sides agree (the deadline to
agree this is 30 June 2020), the UK objects in principle to any extension. The
negotiation mandate decision mentions a possible extension, but the Commission
proposal doesn't discuss the UK objection to extending the transition period. Rather
it aims to get as much as possible done during the available time. It does
refer to the jointly agreed ‘best endeavours’ to agree a new fisheries treaty
by July 2020 (para 74 of the political declaration), saying that a fisheries
treaty ‘should’ be agreed by that point. But it does not explicitly make this a
condition for further negotiations, and the Q and As refer to ‘parallel’
negotiations, not to negotiations on fisheries exclusively at first.
The
Commission proposal refers to a ‘single package’ with general provisions,
economic arrangements, and security arrangements. This possibly implies a
single treaty, although the Commission does not say so expressly. It would also be possible to have separate
treaties which are linked in some way.
Furthermore, the Commission is seeking
legal authority to negotiate an association agreement on the basis of Article
217 TFEU, although it avoids using those actual words. It notes that when
it comes to the end of the negotiations, things might be different. (For
instance, the scope of the agreement might be narrower, or it might take the
form of multiple treaties: either way, this could change the ‘legal base’ of
the treaty or treaties concerned).
Legally, an association agreement
(if that's what is eventually negotiated) requires unanimity in Council and
consent of the European Parliament. It might
need ratification by national parliaments but that depends on the content (as
the Q and As point out). It can be put in force provisionally (at least
partially) if needed.
Territorial scope
The Commission proposes that Gibraltar
is outside the scope of the planned negotiations (para 162 of the proposal).
This is not a new EU position, and is not a territorial claim: the point has
often been misreported. As the Commission points out, the EU position goes back
to 2018, when the European Council took the view that any agreement regarding
Gibraltar would be separate, and subject to the agreement of Spain:
After the
United Kingdom leaves the Union, Gibraltar will not be included in the
territorial scope of the agreements to be concluded between the Union and the
United Kingdom. However, this does not preclude the possibility to have
separate agreements between the Union and the United Kingdom in respect of
Gibraltar. Without prejudice to the competences of the Union and in full
respect of the territorial integrity of its Member States as guaranteed by
Article 4(2) of the Treaty on European Union, those separate agreements will
require a prior agreement of the Kingdom of Spain.
In any event, every Member State
will have a veto over the future relationship treaty with the UK anyway, if it
remains an association agreement as the Commission proposes.
Data protection
The proposed mandate (para 12) refers
to an adequacy decision on UK data protection law. Note that an adequacy
decision is a unilateral decision by the EU under the GDPR. The political
declaration (para 9) referred to an objective to adopt such decisions by the
end of 2020. There is another reference to data protection in the security part
of the proposed mandate (see below). Cooperation between regulators, which was
mentioned in the political declaration (para 10), is not mentioned explicitly
in the proposed mandate.
EU programmes
The proposed mandate (para 13) would
cover UK participation in EU programmes, such as research funding and Erasmus. The
wording of the proposed mandate reflects the political declaration (para 11). Northern
Ireland peace funding is also mentioned (para 14, proposed mandate; compare
para 13, political declaration). However, there is no explicit mention of
association with European research infrastructure (which was mentioned in para
12, political declaration). Note that the EU has not yet agreed the conditions
for non-EU countries to access the next phase of EU programmes: for the draft
text on this, see Article 16 of the proposed
new Erasmus programme.
There’s no explicit mention of
negotiation of UK links to the European Investment Bank, although the political
declaration (para 15) only referred to the UK’s intention to seek such links,
without suggesting that the EU side shared this objective.
The
core of the UK/EU economic partnership would be a free trade agreement (FTA) covering
both goods and services (para 16 of the proposed mandate). It's often
inaccurately claimed that there's no intention for an FTA in services between
the UK and EU, but both sides have always intended to negotiate one (paras 19
and 28 of the political declaration). But note that an FTA falls short of
single market participation. Unlike the political declaration, the proposed
mandate makes an explicit link between the economic partnership and fisheries
and a ‘level playing field’.
Free trade in goods
The
proposed mandate (para 19) provides for no tariffs or quotas. However, unlike
the position as a Member State (and during the transition period), the mandate
refers to rules of origin, to determine where goods come from (para 20). This
is an extra burden on trade between the UK and EU compared to EU membership,
and is a consequence of the UK's decision not to negotiate a customs union. This
reflects the political declaration (para 22); indeed a reference to a need for
rules of origin was added to the revised version of the political declaration
(whereas the first version of the political declaration ruled them out).
The reference to using the EU’s
standard preferential rules of origin is new, and presumably refers to the
pan-European rules (PEM
Convention) in use between the EU and other countries across Europe, the
Middle East and North Africa. Using the standard rules will be simpler and
quicker than negotiating from scratch (rules of origin often take some time to
negotiate in FTA talks).
Next, the negotiating mandate
refers to introducing anti-dumping
duties, anti-subsidy duties and economic safeguards between the UK and EU,
referring to WTO rules. Again, this is a new possible barrier in UK/EU trade. Such
measures are provided for in most FTAs (not just the EU’s: the US applies
anti-subsidy duties to some Canadian products, for instance). For EU FTAs, the
only exception is the European Economic Area (EEA), which rules out
anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties for most products, because the countries
concerned have signed up to EU single market laws. The possibility of such
measures is therefore not a ‘punishment’, but the inevitable consequence of the
UK’s decision to leave the EU without remaining a participant in the single
market.
The possibility of such measures
would be there even without an FTA between the UK and EU. The objective of such
measures is, respectively, to react to goods sold below their normal value (anti-dumping),
subsidised by States (anti-subsidy), or which damage domestic producers
(economic safeguard) – subject to more detailed definitions and procedural
obligations in the WTO Codes dealing with these issues.
The proposed negotiation mandate
also extends to customs facilitation and agreement on non-tariff barriers
(technical and sanitary rules), going beyond WTO provisions. However, it does
not mention the possibility of UK links with EU medical, chemical, and aviation
safety agencies, even though the political declaration referred to this
possibility (para 23).
Free trade in services
The proposed mandate refers to an
FTA in services going beyond WTO commitments, but as usual the EU will exclude
audio visual services. This exclusion was not mentioned in the political
declaration, but is hardly unexpected. On the other hand the proposed mandate
mentions free trade in certain services sectors that were also expressly
mentioned in the political declaration: professional and business services,
telecommunications services, courier and postal services, distribution
services, environmental services, financial services and transport services.
This will include movement of
service providers (as required by WTO rules on FTAs in services), but this
falls short of free movement of people. There is a general reference to
agreement on investment (not just in services industries), but as under the
political declaration there is little further detail. The proposed mandate also
includes recognition of professional qualifications, as referred to in the
political declaration (para 34). Financial services equivalence decisions will
be unilateral.
Intellectual property
It’s usual for FTAs to include
provisions on intellectual property, going beyond WTO and other international
rules. Here the big EU ask here is protection for future ‘geographical indications’
(GIs: these are rules which specify that, for example, ‘feta cheese’ must
originate from Greece). Note that current
GIs are protected in the withdrawal agreement, so the negotiation here would be
about future GIs. There’s also a reference to maintaining current protection in
many other areas of IP, where there is extensive EU legislation going beyond
international IP treaties. There’s no reference to what happens to the plan
that the UK hosts part of the planned Unified Patent Court, which is linked to
an attempt to create a unified EU patent. Some specific references to IP issues
in the political declaration (databases, resale rights, exhaustion of rights)
do not appear explicitly in the proposed mandate. The notion of still applying
EU standards might be an issue in the case of the controversial recent EU
copyright law, which the UK supported when it was adopted but now intends not
to apply.
Public procurement
As is common for FTAs, the
mandate envisages opening up public procurement markets more than under the WTO
procurement agreement. This reflects the political declaration, although note
that the rhetoric on this issue in the UK is inconsistent, with an obvious
conflict between the competing slogans of "Buy British" economic
nationalism on the one hand, and export oriented "Global Britain" on
the other. Since the UK is signing up to the WTO procurement agreement in its
own name and non-EU countries may also wish to include additional procurement
obligations in FTAs, the “Buy British” folks may be disappointed – although
opening up markets reciprocally enables exporting British companies to sell their goods and services too.
Mobility
The proposed mandate falls short
of free movement of people here. It refers to waiving visa requirements for short
term travel, which the EU has done already unilaterally on the condition of
reciprocity (see discussion here).
A visa waiver treaty between the two sides could go further – most notably waiving
visa requirements for paid activities (which is now an option for Member
States), which would be useful for the music industry, for instance. But it is
not clear if the Commission is referring to a visa waiver treaty. Note that the section on mobility is in
addition to the planned negotiations on services, which would include some
movement of people (discussed above).
The proposed mandate also refers
to “setting out conditions” relating to migration of students and researchers
(areas where the EU has already legislated on non-EU migration, as discussed here).
There could also be agreement on social security coordination, but note that
this would be for future UK/EU
migration. Those who moved before the end of the transition period are covered
by the withdrawal agreement (see discussion here),
which also covers the common travel area referred to in the proposed mandate.
Note that there’s no reference to possible negotiations on retaining free
movement rights for UK citizens in the EU before the end of the transition
period.
There’s no mention of the
political declaration’s reference to facilitating travel (para 53 of the
declaration), perhaps because of the UK government’s plan to match the EU’s planned
advance travel authorisation system. Nor is there any reference to
negotiations on family law civil judicial cooperation as mentioned in the
political declaration (para 56), although it is understood that the Council
draft of the mandate will insert text on this.
Transport
On air transport, the proposed
mandate states that the UK will not have the same market access as an EU Member
State, but is willing to negotiate. It also refers to aviation safety
standards.
On land transport, it refers to market
access for road haulage, but not cabotage (haulage within a single Member
State/multiple Member States). This would be linked to a standstill on social
rules relating to drivers plus tachograph discussions (this concerns the
devices keeping track of how long drivers are driving for). There’s no
reference to private motorists, although the political declaration referred to
them.
The text refers to international
law on coach transport, which suggests that the UK and EU would not negotiate
additional provisions. On rail transport, there’s a reference to the Channel
Tunnel; it’s understood that the Council will add a reference to Dublin/Belfast
rail links here, in accordance with a reference in the political declaration.
There’s no reference to maritime
transport, although again it’s understood that the Council will add a reference
to possible negotiations on this issue, matching a reference in the political
declaration. It remains to be seen whether the reference to cooperation with
the EU maritime safety agency in the political declaration will be retained.
Energy
The proposed mandate has a number
of references to renewable energy, along with a level playing field on carbon
pricing, and a Euratom deal including a standstill on nuclear safety standards
and isotope issues. (On post-Brexit relations with Euratom, see my earlier
discussion). The Council will likely add a reference to nuclear waste,
perhaps reflecting Irish concerns about Sellafield.
Fisheries
The focus of the proposal is EU
traditional fishing in UK waters, with a link to the rest of the economic
partnership, and a reference to agreed July target date. As noted above, the
target date does not seem to be an absolute demand. The Council is likely to strengthen the EU’s
position here. The topic is a prime candidate for crashing the whole
negotiations – as is the next topic...
Level playing field
The term ‘level playing field’
might be used differently in other contexts, but for these discussions it
refers to law on State aid, competition law, and aspects of tax, labour and
environmental law. It’s common for the EU to require some form of LPF clauses
in its FTAs, but the question is whether to go beyond the usual provisions in
the EU/UK FTA – with the rationale for the EU side being that the FTA would go
further in abolishing all tariffs than other EU FTAs go.
The first point to emphasise is
that in addition to being in other EU FTAs, the UK signed up to the concept of
LPF in the political declaration. Both sides agreed that the LPF:
…should be
commensurate with the scope and depth of the future relationship and
the economic connectedness of the Parties. These commitments should
prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages. To that end,
the Parties should uphold the common high standards applicable in the Union and
the United Kingdom at the end of the transition period in the areas of state
aid, competition, social and employment standards, environment, climate change,
and relevant tax matters. The Parties should in particular maintain a robust
and comprehensive framework for competition and state aid control that prevents
undue distortion of trade and competition; commit to the principles of good
governance in the area of taxation and to the curbing of harmful tax practices;
and maintain environmental, social and employment standards at the current high
levels provided by the existing common standards. In so doing, they should
rely on appropriate and relevant Union and international
standards, and include appropriate mechanisms to ensure
effective implementation domestically, enforcement and dispute settlement as
part of the future relationship. The future relationship should also
promote adherence to and effective implementation of relevant internationally
agreed principles and rules in these domains, including the Paris Agreement.
So the commitment was to ‘uphold
common high standards’ applicable in the EU and UK at the end of the transition
period; ‘maintain’ standards ‘at the current high levels provided by the
existing common standards’; ‘rely on appropriate and relevant Union and
international standards’; and include provisions on implementation, enforcement
and dispute settlement. So there were several references to EU rules, most in
the context of a standstill, but partly more open-ended (ie possibly
application of future rules too); and a general reference to dispute settlement,
with no specific reference here to the CJEU (but see the reference to the CJEU
role below).
The proposed negotiating mandate
partly repeats this text, but also adds many points. On LPF enforcement in
general, it states that the EU ‘should also have the possibility to apply
autonomous interim measures to react quickly to disruptions of the equal
conditions of competition in relevant areas’. On future measures, it states
that the ‘envisaged partnership should commit the Parties to continue improving
their respective levels of protection with the goal of ensuring high levels of
protection’, with the governing body having power to extend the LPF or add to
it over time (note that the governing body would have to act jointly).
On specific issues, EU State aid should
apply ‘to and in’ the UK, although they would be enforced by an independent UK
body, not the Commission; and disputes ‘about the application of State aid
rules in the United Kingdom should be subject to dispute settlement’. For
competition law, general provisions similar to EU law (although here there is
no specific cross-reference to EU law) should apply as regards EU/UK trade,
along with a commitment to ‘effective enforcement’. There should be limits on
special rights for state-owned enterprises, with no specific reference to EU
law or enforcement.
On tax, there should be a
commitment to international standards, and also the UK should apply ‘the common
standards applicable within the Union and the United Kingdom at the end of the
transition period in relation to at least the following areas: exchange of
information on income, financial accounts, tax rulings, country-by-country
reports, beneficial ownership and potential cross-border tax planning
arrangements’, along with ‘the fight against tax avoidance practices and public
country-by-country reporting by credit-institutions and investment firms’, and
(without reference to common standards) ‘the Parties’ commitment to curb
harmful tax measures, taking into account the G20-OECD BEPS Action Plan’ and
the UK reaffirming ‘its commitment to the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation’.
On employment law, there should
be no reduction ‘below the level provided by the common standards applicable
within the Union and the United Kingdom at the end of the transition period in
relation to at least the following areas: fundamental rights at work;
occupational health and safety, including the precautionary principle; fair
working conditions and employment standards; and information and consultation
rights at company level and restructuring’. There should also be provision on
enforcement within the UK, ‘through adequately resourced domestic authorities,
an effective system of labour inspections and effective administrative and
judicial proceedings’.
On the environment, again the LPF
should provide that ‘the common level of environmental protection provided by
laws, regulations and practices is not reduced below the level provided by the
common standards applicable within the Union and the United Kingdom at the end
of the transition period’. The text refers to ‘at least the following areas:
access to environmental information; public participation and access to justice
in environmental matters; environmental impact assessment and strategic
environmental assessment; industrial emissions; air emissions and air quality
targets and ceilings; nature and biodiversity conservation; waste management;
the protection and preservation of the aquatic environment; the protection and
preservation of the marine environment; the prevention, reduction and
elimination of risks to human health or the environment arising from the
production, use, release and disposal of chemical substances; and climate
change.’
Also, the LPF ‘should lay down
minimum commitments reflecting standards, including targets, in place at the
end of the transition period in those areas, where relevant’; ‘should ensure
the Parties respect the precautionary principle and the principles that
preventive action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority
be rectified at source and that the polluter should pay’. For enforcement,
again, the LPF ‘should ensure that the United Kingdom implements a transparent
system for the effective domestic monitoring, reporting, oversight and
enforcement of its obligations by an independent and adequately resourced body
or bodies’. (Note that the proposed Environment
Bill would include some provisions to this effect).
There are also some specific
provisions on climate change: the UK should maintain ‘a system of carbon pricing
of at least the same effectiveness and scope as provided by the common
standards, including targets, agreed within the Union before the end of the
transition period and applicable for the period thereafter’, and the two sides
‘should consider linking a United Kingdom national greenhouse gas emissions
trading system with the Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS)’ which should be
‘based on the conditions agreed within the Union, ensure the integrity of the
Union’s ETS and a level playing field, and provide for the possibility to
increase the level of ambition over time’. Besides carbon pricing systems, the
LPF should ensure that the UK ‘does not reduce the level of protection below
the level provided by the common standards, including targets, agreed within
the Union by the end of the transition period and applicable for the period
thereafter’.
The proposal also refers to ‘adherence
to and effective implementation of relevant’ international rules, which ‘should
include’ International Labour Organisation conventions, the Council of Europe
European Social Charter and multilateral environmental agreements including
those related to climate change, including the Paris Agreement. On top of that,
where the parties have higher standards above the minimum commitments, ‘the
envisaged partnership should prevent them from lowering those additional levels
in order to encourage trade and investment.’
Has the EU ‘moved the goalposts’
here? The agreed text in the political declaration refers explicitly to both EU
and UK standards, vaguely to dispute settlement, and indirectly to future
measures. It’s not surprising that the EU puts forward a maximalist
interpretation of this, or that the UK puts forward a minimalist interpretation
– although it cannot seriously be argued that the political declaration made no commitment to a standstill as regards
EU standards.
There’s nothing here on exactly
how dispute settlement would work, besides a reference to EU retaliation. This
is significant because in the first
withdrawal agreement, which contained much of the detail which the
Commission proposes here, dispute settlement was limited: only some issues
could be subject to the dispute settlement regime in that text (in particular,
disputes about the substance of
labour and environmental commitments could not be subject to dispute
settlement; only disputes about enforcement
systems for those obligations could be). So even the references to EU law
in the LPF part of that agreement did not mean that the CJEU would have
jurisdiction via dispute settlement arbitrators to interpret them, since the
dispute settlement arbitrators would never get hold of such disputes in the
first place.
This also meant that EU
retaliation for the breach of such obligations was impossible, since
retaliation was only possible via the dispute settlement system. While the
draft negotiation mandate refers to possible EU retaliation for breach of LPF
rules, it’s not clear if the limits on such retaliation (both in terms of which
issues are subject to dispute settlement and the constraints on retaliation within the dispute settlement system)
would be different from the limits in the first withdrawal agreement. It should
be noted that in the first withdrawal agreement, UK retaliation against EU
breaches was also possible within the dispute settlement system; one might
expect that the UK would argue that it should similarly have reciprocal powers
to retaliate in the future relationship treaties.
Security cooperation
In the proposal, the security
cooperation is not linked to the LPF or fisheries. But instead it would be made
dependent not only on UK adherence to the ECHR, but also the Human Rights Act (HRA), along with the
unilateral adequacy decision on data protection - expressly referring to
possible CJEU challenges (see the challenges to adequacy decisions relating to
the US, discussed here).
The ECHR and data protection points reflect para 81 of the political declaration,
which referred to the ECHR ‘underpinning’ the relationship; the HRA point goes
beyond it. Also, there would be fair trial and double jeopardy standards.
The Commission position here
reflects the issues that would be litigated anyway about data protection and
human rights standards in the UK. They are already litigated as regards non-EU
countries and other Member States.
For police cooperation, the
proposal refers to passenger name records, DNA/fingerprint/vehicle info, and
exchange of information in individual cases. There is no mention of the Schengen
Information System (which the UK currently applies as regards criminal law
data) and the exchange of information in individual cases can't simply copy it.
As regards PNR, the Commission refers to a CJEU case discussed here,
which sets out limits on what the EU can exchange with non-EU countries to
comply with data protection standards. On PNR and DNA data et al, the proposal
reflects the political declaration. On individual exchanges of information
instead of the Schengen Information System, the proposal is explicit on the
issue whereas the political declaration fudged it (because the two sides did
not agree).
On criminal justice cooperation,
there is a reference to fast track extradition. Note that the EU, Norway and
Iceland have agreed an extradition treaty which is very similar to the European
Arrest Warrant applied between EU countries, but with certain exceptions. Also it refers to exchanging evidence and
criminal records in a similar way to existing EU laws, which would limit the
impact of the UK leaving the EU on these issues. Note that this would probably
go further than the EU has gone with other non-EU countries.
Foreign policy
In this area, the Commission
proposes "alignment" on sanctions (the only explicit use of the word
in its proposal). There would be case by case involvement in defence missions
or defence industry projects (reflecting the wording of the political
declaration, which makes clear that the UK would not be tied to EU defence
cooperation against its will), and limited access to Galileo.
Governance and dispute settlement
Finally, the future relationship
treaties would have a joint committee to oversee and implement them (which is
standard in international treaties). To settle disputes, there would be consultation
then binding arbitration. The CJEU would be involved if an issue concerns the
interpretation of EU law (as explicitly agreed in the political declaration). There
is NO reference to CJEU
involvement otherwise (note that the political declaration explicitly ruled
that out). The mechanics of dispute settlement are not spelled out in detail;
it is possible that they might be based on the provisions in the withdrawal
agreement (see my annotation and analysis of them here).
As discussed in the LPF section
above, it is possible that some parts of the agreement might not be subject to
dispute settlement at all, in which case there is no issue of CJEU involvement
or any other remedies issue (unless the agreement allows for remedies to be
applied without such remedies being
subject to dispute settlement). So the CJEU would only have jurisdiction over
the UK in the future relationship treaty where the agreement a) refers to EU
law AND b) provides for
dispute settlement. Again: key parts of the level playing field in the first
withdrawal agreement met condition a) but NOT b). The details of the future
treaty therefore will be crucial.
Barnard & Peers: chapter 26
Photo credit: Wikimedia
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