Dispute over a voice: EU Parliament threatens blockade of the Brexit Treaty

United Kingdom and Gibraltar European Union membership referendum

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The Brexit Agreement causes political chaos in London, but also in the previously unified EU, there are discord: The European Parliament, which as well as the British House of Commons has to agree to the deal in the end, vehemently calls for more say. If this does not happen, the MEPs could eventually even vote against the withdrawal agreement.

This is clear from a letter from EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani to Austria's Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country still holds the EU Council Presidency until the end of the year. In it Tajani sharp criticizes the plans for the implementation of the exit agreement. The rules on the involvement of the Parliament provided therein are "unacceptable", according to the letter of 7 December, which is available to SPIEGEL.

Criticism of the powerful Brexit committee

Tajani emphasizes that he is not alone with this view: the topic had been discussed the day before by the parliamentary group leaders of the European Parliament. There is unity, confirms Elmar Brok, member of Parliament's Brexit steering group. "The parliament wants to have enough influence," says the CDU politician. This is consensus in the steering group, which is composed of representatives of Christian Democrats, Greens, Left, Liberals and Social Democrats.

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Antonio Tajani

The criticism is directed above all against the powerful position of the "joint committee" of representatives of the EU and Great Britain. This so-called Joint Committee should be responsible for the implementation and application of the Withdrawal Agreement. But that's not all: it should also be allowed to decide on its own whether the transitional period will be extended, while the United Kingdom will remain a virtually non-voting EU member after Brexit. The protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, which contains the controversial catch-up solution to avoid a new hard border, could overturn the committee in whole or in part. And that, without consulting the European Parliament, as Tajani criticizes in his letter to Kurz.

Brok: "Questioning the voice is a condition for us"

For irritation in the Tajani camp apparently ensures that his wishes were simply ignored so far. At the end of November, the Italian had already stressed in a speech to EU leaders that Parliament had to be consulted on important developments. As an example he explicitly mentioned the extension of the transitional phase.

However, less than two weeks later, on 5 December, the Commission presented its proposal for the conclusion of the Withdrawal Agreement - stating that MEPs were only given an annual report on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement and otherwise condemned to watch, Tajani criticized. In his letter to Kurz, he proposes to add a passage to the document, giving Parliament more say.

If that does not happen, trouble threatens: Brok expressly does not exclude that the deputies in this case, in the case of the acceptance of the exit contract to cross. "The question of having a say," says the CDU politician, "is a condition for us in the ratification process."