Scottish parliament votes against Internal Market Bill // Brexit deal creeps closer but Brussels warns ‘we just don’t see it’

 

Scottish parliament votes against Internal Market Bill

 

The UK government will likely ignore Holyrood’s decision.

 

By ANDREW MCDONALD 10/7/20, 8:24 PM CET Updated 10/7/20, 8:28 PM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/scottish-parliament-votes-against-internal-market-bill/

 

The Scottish parliament voted on Thursday to withhold its consent on the U.K.'s controversial Internal Market Bill, setting up another constitutional standoff.

 

A comfortable majority of members backed a Scottish government motion to deny its consent to the Westminster government's bill, that seeks to set up internal U.K. trade post-Brexit. The impact of the move remains to be seen — while the U.K. government have indicated they will proceed anyway, the Scottish government have hinted that they may take the Conservative administration to court.

 

The proposed bill, which has provoked anger in Europe and across the devolved administrations, seeks to change the law to ensure goods can move easily between the U.K.'s four nations. Parts of the draft legislation would allow ministers to break international law by overriding the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, subject to approval by the U.K. parliament.

 

Both the Scottish and Welsh governments have said the bill overrides the powers of the devolved administrations. It aims to set a level playing field for trade of goods and services across the U.K.'s four nations, meaning that devolved administrations will have to accept goods and services from other nations even if they set different trading standards.

 

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described the bill as a "full frontal assault on devolution," while Scottish Constitution Secretary Mike Russell said it represents a "power grab" by the Westminster government.

 

Rejecting the claims, U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has insisted the bill is a "power surge" handing more influence to Scotland.

 

Holyrood also voted to withhold consent for the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement back in January, and did so several times when Brexit legislation was passed in Westminster. The U.K. government proceeded with legislation regardless.

 

Authors:

Andrew McDonald

Brexit deal creeps closer but Brussels warns ‘we just don’t see it’

 

A trade deal between would be ‘better for both sides,’ Boris Johnson told Charles Michel on Wednesday.

 

By CHARLIE COOPER 10/7/20, 8:17 PM CET Updated 10/7/20, 11:30 PM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-deal-creeps-closer-but-brussels-warns-we-just-dont-see-it/

 

LONDON — The Brexit trade gap appears to be getting smaller, despite warnings from the EU that there's a long way to go.

 

A trade deal between the U.K. and the EU would be "better for both sides," Boris Johnson told European Council President Charles Michel in a phone call Wednesday afternoon, as Brussels and London entered an intensive phase of talks before next week's EU summit.

 

The U.K. prime minister spoke to Michel with little more than a week to go before the European Council meeting, which Johnson has set as a deadline for reaching a deal on the U.K.-EU relationship after Brexit.

 

A Downing Street spokesperson said Johnson had outlined the U.K.'s "clear commitment to trying to reach an agreement, underlining that a deal was better for both sides." The prime minister nonetheless reiterated the U.K.'s willingness to end the standstill transition period in December without a free-trade agreement and insisted that the British people "needed certainty very soon on the terms of our future relationship," the spokesperson said.

 

In his own brief assessment of the call, Michel tweeted: "The EU prefers a deal, but not at any cost. Time for the U.K. to put its cards on the table."

 

The two negotiating teams are seeking to thrash out remaining areas of division before the summit.

 

A senior EU official said after the call that Brussels was still unclear if the U.K. is willing to budge on key EU red lines, namely the so-called level playing field or governance of any agreement.

 

“In fact, our main message, you know we see signs that things are moving forward on a couple of things, but the main things still remain unresolved,” the official said. “And that’s why we are saying show your cards on the table. On the most difficult topics, which are essential to getting access to the single market, which they desperately want, we don’t see any signs of progress yet and that is at the heart of the discussion.”

 

The EU continues to have concerns about a range of issues, in particular that the U.K.'s post-Brexit subsidy regime could undermine the European single market's "level playing field."

 

The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Wednesday briefed EU ambassadors about the lack of progress in the talks and asked them to have in-depth discussions with national leaders.

 

On the question of subsidies, his British counterpart, David Frost — in what he described as a "significant move" from the U.K — told a House of Lords committee on Wednesday that the two sides were discussing whether they could "go further than you normally do in an [free-trade agreement] and agree some provisions that shape and condition the subsidy policy on both sides.”

 

Speaking at a House of Commons committee hearing later, Frost added that the U.K. was open to multiannual agreements on fish quotas, a method it had previously ruled out in favor of agreeing access to each other's waters each year.

 

The U.K. wants quota negotiations to be based on so-called zonal attachment, which means calculating quotas based on waters where fish stocks originate, resulting in larger permissible catches for British fisheries. Meanwhile, Barnier is said to have told officials that there must be more realism on fish from the EU side, and that they would have to accept bigger quotas for Britain.

 

However, another EU official offered a much more gloomy assessment of where talks stand and claimed the U.K. side was "pushing a sense of positivism and momentum, but we just don’t see it."

 

“We are seriously questioning their tactic and why they are sending these kinds of messages as there is no deal in sight at all at this point," the official said. "There’s clearly a spin that the U.K. wants to get out there: a deal is within reach, only fish is still a problem. That’s complete nonsense, as a deal on none of the EU’s red lines is nowhere in sight at this stage.”

 

The two sides have completed formal talks over the future relationship but the two negotiating teams, under Barnier and Frost, are still in touch and seeking to thrash out remaining areas of division before the summit.

 

On Saturday, following a call between Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a joint statement said that notable areas of disagreement included "fisheries, the level playing field, and governance." The U.K.'s statement on Wednesday said "significant areas of difference remain" but only named fisheries.

 

Barbara Moens, Emilio Casalicchio, David M. Herszenhorn and Jacopo Barigazzi contributed reporting.