Summary
This is the European Union Committee’s seventh report on Brexit-related treaties, or international agreements, laid before Parliament in accordance with section 20 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (the CRAG Act).
This report addresses four agreements, which we considered at our meeting on 19 March.
We draw special attention to two agreements on the grounds that they are politically important and give rise to issues of public policy that the House may wish to debate prior to ratification.
The two agreements drawn to the special attention of the House are:
- Trade and Partnership Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the State of Israel [CP 59]
- Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Swiss Confederation on Citizens’ Rights following the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the Free Movement of Persons Agreement [CP 64]
We report one further agreement for information:
- Additional Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Liechtenstein extending to the Principality of Liechtenstein certain provisions of the Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Swiss Confederation [CP 65]
The Government has also laid before Parliament an Interim Political, Trade and Partnership Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The United Kingdom does not recognise Palestine as a State, and the Agreement is not therefore a ‘treaty’, under the terms of the CRAG Act; nor is it subject to the statutory scrutiny process described in section 20 of CRAG. But as the Government has stated its desire that Parliament should have the opportunity to scrutinise this Agreement, we have done so, and report it for information:
- Interim Political, Trade and Partnership Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the one part, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, of the other part [CP 61]