The statement follows the second round of negotiations
for a new partnership with the EU.
Thank you Michel. Thank you for your contribution and indeed your
team’s constructive talks this week.
On Monday we agreed to get down to serious business. But before
turning to the substance I want to reiterate the four core
principles that continue to guide the United Kingdom’s approach.
First, we continue to engage constructively, as a full and
responsible Member State.
Second, we continue to work hard and at pace. We had 98 civil
servants here this week.
Third, we negotiate for every nation and region of the United
Kingdom. Our goal is to secure a deal that works for all parts of
the country.
And finally, we will keep Parliament and the public informed as
the negotiations unfold.
Which moves me onto the substance.
Overall, I am encouraged by the progress we have made on
understanding each other’s position on citizens’ rights; the
financial settlement; the first meetings of sub-groups on
separation issues, and on the issues around Ireland and Northern
Ireland.
Citizens’ rights
Since the first round of negotiations, the UK has published its
approach to citizens’ rights.
The talks this week have demonstrated that this was both a fair
and serious offer.
I am pleased by the progress we have made.
We have looked at each other’s proposals in depth and identified
many concrete areas where we agree as well as areas where there
will be further discussion, which will be a priority for the next
round as Michel has said.
We have also agreed to publishing a joint paper today that sets
out the many areas of convergence in our proposals, and the areas
we need to prioritise for future discussion in our future rounds.
Michel listed a number of the areas which require that future
discussion and I won’t reiterate them, I’ll add to them: issues
like voters’ rights, posted workers and of course as he said the
need for shared certainty. We agreed on the need for certainty on
the part of citizens both the EU and the UK, we obviously have
different views on how we achieve that.
Financial settlement
On financial settlement, we both recognise the importance of
sorting out the obligations we have to one another, both legally,
and in the spirit of mutual cooperation.
We have had robust but constructive talks this week.
Clearly there is a lot left to talk about, and further work
before we can resolve this. Ultimately getting to a solution will
require flexibility from both sides.
But as Michel said, we shouldn’t expect incremental progress in
every round.
Ireland
On Ireland and Northern Ireland, our coordinators – this is a
discussion rather than a working group – have had a good
discussion.
Both sides remain committed to the Good Friday agreement and
again as Michel said, achieving a flexible and imaginative
solution to address the unique circumstances around the border,
and particularly on the north/south dimension of the agreement.
These include the mechanisms we have discussed to preserve the
Common Travel Area and the rights associated with it. Rights laid
down of course in a British Act of Parliament as well as in part
to the Amsterdam Treaty.
Separation issues
On separation issues, we have made progress on a range of issues,
Michel mentioned most of them: Euratom; legal cases pending
before the European Court of Justice and administrative
procedures before Union institutions; and of course goods on the
market.
These discussions have laid important groundwork for progress in
the next round.
Conclusion
All in all, the second round of negotiations have given us a lot
to be positive about.
And they have also highlighted the need for both sides to
demonstrate a dynamic and flexible approach in the way we
approach these challenges.
We have conducted this round constructively and at pace, and I
hope this is a model we can continue going forward.
To coin a phrase Michel, the clock is ticking.
I came here saying that it was important that we now made
progress, identifying the differences so we could deal with them,
and finding the similarities so we could reinforce them.
And this week, I think we have done just that.
Thank you.
