19 March 2019 (Brussels, BE) – For those of you who follow Brexit only through those “meaningless votes” … sorry, “meaningful votes” … in the UK Parliament, there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. Yes, I know, I know. I thought only the U.S. has a legalocratic legislature, arguing over the jots and tittles of gigantic legalese draft agreements. See? It’s NOT just the U.S. Congress that shows it is not up to the complexity of modern tasks.
Among the nice things being in Brussels (the beer really is quite good), there are helpful things like having the opportunity to build a network of sources in and among the EU institutions. And my sources tell me the UK has been busy, busy, busy! Just two weeks before we hit default Brexit Day, the U.K. voluntarily opted into EU policies it doesn’t need to be a part of … some absurd interventions. The list of moves is long but there are two that are very important so ….
- In a letter dated March 14th (you don’t need to know how we obtain this stuff but it is pretty much why I had scoops on Safe Harbor/Privacy Shield developments), U.K. Ambassador Tim Barrow told the Romanian presidency of the Council that Britain “wishes to accept” recent changes to the rules governing Eurojust, the EU agency coordinating cross-border judicial cooperation. (Reminder: the U.K. is allowed to not take part in common legislation on matters of security, justice and home affairs)
- There’s more: in a similar letter, also dated March 14th, Barrow informed the Romanians the U.K. wants in on a beefed-up Eurodac, the common database that stores fingerprints of migrants who cross external EU borders. Britain’s formal notifications — a unilateral affair which needs neither permission nor sanction by the EU — were filed March 14 with the Council Registry.
- UK official reaction when asked the rationale behind this since it has never intervened in this manner before: “The U.K. is committed to the security and safety of U.K. and EU citizens, as set out in the joint Political Declaration. Britain values the role of Eurojust in helping law enforcement and prosecution agencies coordinate investigations in cross-border organized crime and terrorism”.
Let me spell this out for you: the United Kingdom, halfway out the door of the European Union, has decided to integrate its own security policies more deeply with the rest of the bloc, in a last-minute move to get access to EU data …. which it will lose leaving the EU since it will no longer provide its percentage contribution to the structure and cost of these data systems (barring some deal post-Brexit).
On a (somewhat) related issue after the EU’s agriculture ministers’ meeting that decided recent U.K.’s tariff proposals in the event of a no-deal Brexit would be “illegal under WTO [World Trade Organization] rules” the Chairman of the meeting noted the UK quickly amended its statement to add “temporary”. Explained my source: “this means that they will probably accept our proposals in the post-Brexit part of the process but just aren’t sure about … well, anything”.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands is considered to be the best prepared for a Brexit that may never come having spent millions of euros and hiring hundreds of people to get ready for no-deal: “There is no alternative but to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I mean, we’re Dutch”.