A leading parliamentary committee has produced a report setting out 20 ways the UK and the EU can reset their relationship for mutual benefit.
The Business and Trade Committee report, How to Strengthen UK-EU Relations, which can be found here, is described as a draft Green Paper. It has been published after the Government declined to publish its own Green Paper on the potential routes to growth that could be achieved by a reset of relations with the EU, the UK’s largest export market. The report will be issued to UK businesses, trade unions and consumer groups for consultation.
Chair of the Committee, Liam Byrne, said: “Russia’s bloodthirsty aggression is undiminished and requires a heftier deterrent. China’s race to arms accelerates, while America looks like a weary titan in retreat from the system it authored at the end of World War II. The consequences are obvious.” To tackle these challenges, which will define this Parliament, the UK and Europe must draw closer together, he added.
The Green Paper includes what the Committee terms practical proposals in the short and medium term spanning economic security and defence, boosting trade in goods, services, energy and culture.
These include rejoining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention on rules of origin and transforming support for the UK goods sector through an ambitious SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) agreement, a multi-year settlement on fisheries and bold action to cut red tape at the border with an overhaul of customs co-operation.
The Committee is also calling for an “ambitious review” of mutual recognition of conformity assessments on product safety and a permanent data adequacy agreement.
