The European Parliament will hold several key votes this week by its committees to ratify the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, MEPs said.
The trade pact between the EU and the United Kingdom began to be applied provisionally on January 1, after nine months of intense negotiations and a last-minute agreement in December 2020.
The British Parliament ratified the agreement, but MEPs have until April 30 to approve or reject it, while tensions over the consequences of Brexit on the island of Ireland are mounting. In recent days, heavy fighting broke out in Northern Ireland, a British province.
At a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, the leaders of the political groups decided that the commissions in charge of International Trade and Foreign Affairs would vote on the agreement, probably on Thursday, European Parliament officials announced.
However, before organizing a full vote, MEPs indicated that they needed assurances that the UK will honor its Brexit deal commitments.
We need “advances in [la] roadmap for a pragmatic and comprehensive implementation of the divorce agreement, “Luxembourg MP Christophe Hansen tweeted.
If the pact is not ratified before a month or no agreement is reached with the United Kingdom to extend its provisional application, the trade agreement would cease to be valid.
MEPs expressed their anger that the United Kingdom decided to delay the establishment of food controls destined for Northern Ireland until October, and stated that this represented a unilateral modification of the divorce agreement.
The EU launched legal proceedings against the UK following that decision, although officials on both sides are trying to find a solution.
arp/jj/jvb/e.g.
–
