European Union Committee
Brexit: the revised Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration

1st Report of Session 2019-20 - published 10 January 2020 - HL Paper 4

Contents

Summary

Chapter 1: Introduction

Overview

Timeline

Government engagement

This report

Chapter 2: The Withdrawal Agreement

Territorial scope

Governance

The role of the Joint Committee

The role of the specialised committees

Implementation and application of the Withdrawal Agreement

Good faith

The role of the Court of Justice of the European Union

The proposed arbitration model

Conclusions

Citizens’ rights

Pre-Agreement implementation: the EU Settlement Scheme

Analysis of the citizens’ rights provisions

Supervision and enforcement of the agreement on citizens’ rights

What is not included in the citizens’ rights provisions

Conclusions

The financial settlement

Figure 1: Estimated path of settlement payments

Conclusions

Other provisions

Chapter 3: The transition or implementation period

The general principles of transition

Exceptions to the general principles

Free trade agreements

Extending the transition period

Chapter 4: Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland

Basic principles and conditions

Duration

The rights of individuals and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement

Common Travel Area

Customs and the movement of goods

Customs territory of the UK and goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland

Implications of these rules

EU Customs responsibilities applicable to Northern Ireland

Implications for goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain

VAT and excise

Other regulatory and technical responsibilities

Box 1: List of technical rules and product standards dealt with in Annex 2 to the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland

Implementation, application, supervision and enforcement

Other areas of North-South cooperation

Common provisions and safeguards

Oversight of the Protocol

The consent mechanism

Box 2: Declaration by the Government concerning the operation of the ‘Democratic consent in Northern Ireland’ provision of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland

Chapter 5: The revised Political Declaration on the future relationship

Overview

Introduction to the Political Declaration

Part I: initial provisions

Part II: economic partnership

Goods

Services and investment

Financial services

Digital

Capital movements and payments, intellectual property and public procurement

Mobility

Transport

Energy

Fishing opportunities

Global cooperation

Level playing field for open and fair competition

Negotiating the economic partnership during the transition period

Part III: security partnership

Law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters

Foreign policy, security and defence

Thematic cooperation

Negotiating the security partnership during the transition period

Part IV: institutional and other horizontal arrangements

Part V: forward process

Summary of conclusions and recommendations

Appendix 1: List of Members and declarations of interest

Appendix 2: Letter dated 4 November 2019 from Lord Kinnoull, Chair of the European Union Committee, to Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, Leader of the House of Lords





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