Considerations on COM(2022)89 - Rules for the exercise of the Union's rights in the implementation and enforcement of the Brexit Agreement and of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the United Kingdom

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dossier COM(2022)89 - Rules for the exercise of the Union's rights in the implementation and enforcement of the Brexit Agreement and of the Trade ...
document COM(2022)89 EN
date March 15, 2023
 
(1) On 30 January 2020, the Council concluded the Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community 22 (the ‘Withdrawal Agreement’). That Agreement entered into force on 1 February 2020.

(2) On 29 April 2021, the Council concluded, on behalf of the Union, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part 23 (the ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’). The Trade and Cooperation Agreement was applied provisionally as of 1 January 2021 and entered into force on 1 May 2021.

(3) Both the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement provide that a Party may adopt certain measures in the specific cases and subject to the conditions and procedures laid down therein. These measures may entail the suspension of certain obligations under the Agreement concerned.

(4) The Union and the United Kingdom may conclude other bilateral agreements between them that constitute supplementing agreements to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and such supplementing agreements are an integral part of the overall bilateral relations as governed by this Agreement and form part of the overall framework.

(5) Should the need arise to exercise its rights in implementing and enforcing the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the Union should be in a position to make appropriate use of the instruments available to it swiftly and in a proportionate, effective and flexible manner, while fully involving Member States. The Union should also be able to take appropriate measures if effective recourse to binding dispute settlement under those Agreements is not possible because the United Kingdom does not cooperate in making such recourse possible. It is therefore necessary to lay down rules and procedures governing the adoption of those measures.

(6) The rules and procedures laid down in this Regulation should take precedence over any provisions of Union law adopted on the basis of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union that govern the same subject matter.

(7) In order to ensure that this Regulation remains fit for purpose, the Commission should undertake, within five years of its entry into force, a review of its scope and implementation and report its findings to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

(8) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, and in particular in order to ensure the swift, effective and flexible exercise of the corresponding Union’s rights under the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to adopt the measures referred to above and to and to adopt, as appropriate, measures restricting trade or other activities. Those powers should also extend to the amendment, suspension or repeal of the adopted measures. They should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 24 . Given that the envisaged measures entail the adoption of acts of general scope, and that most of the envisaged measures relate to the areas referred to in Article 2(2), point (b), of that Regulation, the examination procedure should be used for the adoption of those measures. The Commission should adopt immediately applicable implementing acts where, in duly justified cases, imperative grounds of urgency so require for the appropriate protection of the Union’s interests.

(9) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely to lay down rules and procedures governing the exercise of Union's rights under the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and to empower the Commission to adopt the necessary measures including, as appropriate, restrictions in trade, investment or other activities within the scope of the latter Agreement cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. Moreover, since only the Union is Party to the TCA and the WA, action at the level of international law in respect of these agreements can only be taken by the Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.