07 November 2022

Opening remarks by Vice-President Šefčovič at the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly

It is a pleasure to be here today, for the second meeting of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly.

It has been six eventful months since we met for the first time – to inaugurate this Assembly, designed to connect parliamentarians from the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Europe as a whole finds itself at an historical turning point.

In the face of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, we need to collectively defend our values, including by maintaining our joint steadfast support for Ukraine.

Just the newest example on our part, the Commission will this week propose a substantial financial package of up to 18 billion euros in total to help cover Ukraine's financing needs in 2023.

This comes on top of some 22 billion euros already provided by the EU, Member States and European financial institutions.

The strong economic headwinds, with rising energy and food prices as well as inflation across Europe, surely give another reason for strengthening our EU-UK collaboration.

As I have said on numerous occasions, the European Union seeks to have a strategic, enduring and mutually beneficial partnership with the United Kingdom – in full respect of our international agreements, notably the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

They were not only negotiated together, agreed, and ratified, but they also embody trust.

*

And it is precisely a spirit of partnership and trust that the EU seeks in its engagement with our UK counterparts across the board – and the need for this spirit is perhaps most evident when it comes to the outstanding issues around the implementation of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

From the very beginning, the EU has shown genuine understanding for the practical difficulties on the ground, flagged to us by Northern Irish stakeholders.

This has not changed.

My team and I remain committed to working constructively and intensively on joint solutions, as only those can create the legal certainty and predictability that people and businesses in Northern Ireland need and deserve.

Here, I want to appreciate the contribution of my counterpart, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, with whom we restarted EU-UK engagement on the joint way forward at the end of September.

This is important, as the UK had not engaged in any meaningful discussions with us since February.

I believe that our respective positions are not worlds apart if we genuinely explore the EU's robust proposals, aimed at simplifying and facilitating trade between east and west, while ensuring no hard border between north and south on the island of Ireland.

Just to give you an example: a lot has been said about “a UK's green lane” versus “an EU's express lane”.

The issue here boils down to “no checks” versus “minimum checks”, stemming from Brexit itself. Because we must acknowledge that Brexit did fundamentally alter trade on the island of Ireland.

Once goods enter Northern Ireland, there are no further checks whether – and if so, when – these goods continue to the EU's Single Market. 

But I want to ensure that the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is as seamless as possible, with almost all checks and controls effectively invisible – for instance, checking electronic data, while goods are sailing on a ferry from Great Britain and before they reach Northern Ireland.

Commssion

© European Commission