An important step forward on the road to Brexit. While negotiations to reach a last-minute deal are still ongoing, with a meeting between the president of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the British prime minister, Boris Johnson scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, the British minister Michael Gove and the vice president of the EU Commission, Maros, Sefcovic have announced that they have found an agreement in principle “on all matters relating to the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement”.
“I am pleased to announce that through hard work with Michael Gove we have reached an agreement in principle on all matters relating to the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement. This will ensure that it is fully operational from XNUMX January, including the protocol on Ireland." This is the tweet published a few minutes ago by European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.
Going into detail, the Agreement provides that after the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and therefore from 1 January, Northern Ireland will continue to be part of the single market, a condition that will be effective regardless of whether the two parties are able to find a commercial agreement in time.
The agreement, the EU commission underlined in a note, "protects the Good Friday agreements in all its dimensions", maintaining "peace" on the island of Ireland. All border disputes resolved “particularly with regard to controls on animals, plants and derived products, export declarations, the supply of medicines, frozen meats and other food products for supermarkets“.
The Northern Ireland issue was one of the crucial points of the negotiations and the fact that it has been resolved bodes well for a success at the photo finish of the negotiations after days of fibrillation. The no deal hypothesis remains on the table, but even if the two sides fail to agree, the Irish question will be safe.
However, there is also another important issue that seems to have been resolved: the United Kingdom and the European Union have managed to also agree on the terms of the application of the state aid rules. For this reason, Minister Gove has confirmed that Downing Street will withdraw clauses 44, 45 and 47 of theInternal Market Bill. Clauses which, by the British Government's own admission, violated international law and which had prompted the European Union to threaten legal action.
“In view of these mutually agreed solutions, UK to withdraw clauses 44, 45 and 47 of Internal Market Bill of the United Kingdom and will not introduce similar provisions in the taxation bill,” reads a statement from the European Commission.
The agreement reached today, once finalised, will have to be examined by the meeting of the EU-UK joint committee, scheduled "before the end of the year".
