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Courtesy of the Times.
Britain will ask the European Union to extend the Brexit transition period beyond 2020 with a “duration determined by how long it will take to prepare and implement the future partnership”.
The request for an effectively open-ended transition period will anger Conservative Eurosceptics who have described the arrangements as reducing Britain to a “vassal state”. A draft government negotiating document seen by The Times nudges the government into a transition lasting longer than two years, during which time Britain will have to abide by all EU rules, including free movement, without any say in decisions. “The UK believes the period’s duration should be determined simply by how long it will to prepare and implement the new processes and new systems that will underpin the future partnership,” the draft text said. “The UK agrees this points to a period of around two years but wishes to discuss with EU the assessment that supports its proposed end date.”
Official publication today was delayed by at least three hours as internal government talks continued.
The EU’s proposed transition lasts 21 months after Brexit, until 31 December, 2020, and most diplomats, including British officials, believe the period needs to be longer, with many suggesting that a regulatory “standstill” bridging period will need to be three to five years long. A British government source insisted that the request “could equally well apply to shortening transition” but most officials involved in the talks believe implementing a future trade agreement will take at least five years. The government is additionally asking for a “mutual good faith” pact to ensure that EU legislation agreed during an extended transition can not be deliberately designed to damage British interests such as the City of London.
The British proposal would create a “joint committee . . . protecting the rights and interest of both parties”, a demand that will worry European governments that are concerned that the transition could become a semi-permanent relationship. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP for North East Somerset and chairman of the influential European Research Group (ERG) of backbenchers, said: “This seems to contradict David Davis’s line to the DExEU Committee when he indicated that only minor technical issues would not be agreed by 29th March, 2019.”