EU wants our land & waters in return for trade deal - final proof of bad faith

Third and final part of Brexit Facts4EU.Org’s series reveals EU's shocking demands

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2020

Further detailed facts, flatly contradicting BBC claim that EU did not set out to punish UK

Correcting the BBC about Brexit - Part Three

The final part in a series of three articles demonstrating the EU's bad faith in negotiating with the United Kingdom
Evidence for use by UK Government in rescinding the Withdrawal Agreement

The full series:-
Part One - Fact 1   |   Part Two - Facts 2-6   |   Part Three (this article) - Facts 7-10

In our article on Thursday, we called out the BBC for its latest pro-EU stance. In the Saturday edition of Brexit Facts4EU.Org (yesterday) we provided further evidence. In this third and final part we provide yet more evidence demonstrating that the EU has never acted in good faith or with goodwill towards the UK and its people since the vote to leave on 23 June 2016.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

10 key facts which show how the EU set out to punish the British people

Evidence in Part One – read it here.

  • Fact 1 – From Day One the EU made it perfectly clear that it would punish the UK

Evidence in Part Two – read it here.

  • Fact 2 – EU banned UK from speaking to member states and delayed talks by a year
  • Fact 3 – Numerous hostile announcements have been made by the EU and leaders of member countries
  • Fact 4 – EU banned discussion of trade until Withdrawal Agreement was signed
  • Fact 5 – EU insisted on three arbitrary items to be agreed before trade talks could start
  • Fact 6 – EU weaponised and endangered the Belfast Agreement, threatening peace in Northern Ireland

Evidence in Part Three – This concluding article

  • Fact 7 – The Northern Ireland Protocol has the effect of colonising part of the sovereign territory of the UK
  • Fact 8 – EU still claims UK territorial waters as its own, or no trade deal
  • Fact 9 – For the vast majority of the time, the EU has made the “trade talks” about other issues
  • Fact 10 – The demands of the EU Commission and Parliament are unprecedented in any Free Trade Agreement

Fact 7 – Evidence - Northern Ireland Protocol 'colonises' part of sovereign territory of the UK

Here was the Prime Minister in September:-

“We are being told that the EU will not only impose tariffs on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, but that they might actually stop the transport of food products from GB to NI.

“I have to say that we never seriously believed that the EU would be willing to use a Treaty, negotiated in good faith, to blockade one part of the UK, to cut it off; or that they would actually threaten to destroy the economic and territorial integrity of the UK. This was for the very good reason that any such barrier, any such tariffs or division would be completely contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Good Friday agreement. By actively undermining the Union of our country, such an interpretation would seriously endanger peace and stability in Northern Ireland.”

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, writing for the Daily Telegraph, 12 Sept 2020

As we reported in Part Two of this series, the EU’s ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’ foisted on the UK breaks the terms of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, as it rides roughshod over the basic principle of consent contained in the Agreement in addition to many other egregious clauses.

A new treaty - the Withdrawal Agreement - cannot and should not contravene or replace the terms of another treaty, especially not the Belfast (‘Good Friday’) Agreement. Yet that is what the EU’s Withdrawal Agreement does.

It needs repeating: a foreign power is effectively threatening to annex part of the United Kingdom.

Fact 8 - Evidence - EU still claims UK territorial waters as its own, or no trade deal

As if the quasi-annexation of part of the United Kingdom’s land mass were not enough, the EU has pursued its claim for unfettered access to the UK’s coastal waters.

For a foreign power to assume rights over UK waters is in and of itself quite extraordinary. Yet that has been the default position of the EU since the beginning. Even at the time of writing the EU Parliament continues its insistence that no trade deal will be approved unless the UK meekly hands over its new international rights to its coastal waters to the EU from 31 December 2020.

The EU Parliament is at one with the EU Commission’s negotiating mandate regarding fishing. Here is their resolution in June of this year about this:

“The European Parliament… reaffirms that no trade agreement can be concluded between the EU and the UK if it does not include a complete, sustainable, balanced and long-term fisheries agreement, upholding the continuation under optimal conditions of existing access to waters, resources and markets in accordance with common fisheries policy (CFP) principles and adopted before the end of the transition period.”


- Adopted text by EU Parliament, 18 June 2020

In other words, the extraordinary demands of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy must stay in place – full access, everything – or the EU will not approve a trade deal. It almost defies belief, but we have it all from them in black and white.

Fact 9 - Evidence - For the vast majority of the time, the EU has made the “trade talks” about other issues

One example of how the EU machine has never been serious about maintaining its member countries’ trading relationship with the UK is its strange insistence on discussing a wide range of non-trade issues in the ‘trade talks’.

We chose a week from this year at random. In the week commencing 29 June 2020, only two 2-hour sessions took place specifically on trade issues. In that week there were:

  • Two hours negotiating on trade in goods
  • Two hours negotiating on trade in services

The rest of the time was spent on a range of side issues, at the EU’s insistence.

Fact 10 – Evidence - Demands of EU Commission and Parliament are unprecedented in any Free Trade Agreement

On 12 Feb 2020 in Strasbourg, the MEPs of the EU Parliament debated the draft negotiating guidelines put forward by the EU Commission, as strengthened by their own even stronger demands. The eventual motion passed with ease.

  • EU Parliament demands full UK subservience - or no trade deal
  • 93% of MEPs impose impossible conditions on UK, in punishment vote

MEPs voted by 543 to 39 in favour of a motion which would destroy any hope of a reasonable EU-UK trade deal by the end of this year.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

The demands of the “Trade Prevention Officers” of the EU Parliament

  • UK laws must follow EU laws – existing and future
  • The European Court of Justice will arbitrate on all matters of EU law imposed on the UK
  • UK must give up its rights to its own territorial waters, or no deal
  • UK must guarantee to have equal laws on social, environmental, tax, state aid, consumer protection, climate matters, competition, labour standards, environmental protection, and more
  • UK must follow EU actions on almost everything
  • Gibraltar will not be included, so that the Spanish can use it to claim sovereignty once again

The EU Parliament’s full list of demands is here
The EU Commission’s full list of demands is here

Here is Michel Barnier last month, in typically intransigent form

In its latest debate on Brexit on 21 October 2020, MEPs stressed the need to reach an agreement on EU-UK future relations that does not compromise EU interests and values. Here is Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, addressing the EU Parliament on that day, and going even further:-

“The European Union's attitude to these negotiations has in no way shifted and will not shift, not up until the very last day and not even then. We will remain calm, constructive and respectful, but we will also remain firm and determined when it comes to defending the principles and the interests of each of the EU member states and the EU itself.”

- EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier, 21 Oct 2020

Never to our knowledge has any party to a trade negotiation ever insisted that its demands from the start to the end of the process are so immovable. To do this would be to remove the element of ‘negotiation’ from the term ‘trade negotiations’. Yet this is effectively what the EU has done.

Observations

We would like to thank the EU’s Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier for making it so clear that the EU has never acted with goodwill or in good faith in the course of its ‘negotiations’ with the United Kingdom. “The European Union's attitude to these negotiations has in no way shifted and will not shift, not up until the very last day and not even then.“ With an inflexible attitude like this from the EU, what was the point of having ‘trade talks’ with them in the first place?

It is now essential that the UK Government abandon the trade talks and put all its time and energies into preparing for a WTO terms exit from the EU’s Transition Period on 31 December 2020.

We suggest Lord Frost and his team could use the remaining time wrapping up some simple side deals with the EU to ensure that life continues as normally as possible from 01 January 2021, in the interests of the citizens of both the EU and the UK.

In conclusion

This three-part series has highlighted the unacceptable way the EU has acted towards the UK since the moment the British people voted to leave. The evidence we have provided completely discredits the BBC’s claim that “the EU is not setting out to punish the UK in post-Brexit trade talks.”

It also provides an excellent summary of some justifications to be used by HMG, if it proceeds with rescinding and voiding the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration. We urge them to do that now and to walk away from any further, futile trade talks without further ado.

Urgent

As readers will be able to imagine, the research, writing, and presentation of all this information took a great deal of time. If we are to see this thing through to the end, after almost five years of seven day-a-week work, we need your help.

The level of our donations has dropped significantly in the last month, probably partly due to the impact of the measures the Government has taken regarding COVID-19. These kind donations are currently at an unsustainably low level. We know that these are difficult times for many people, but we have to ask any reader who can to support us with a donation today so that we can continue our fight for a free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom as we approach the end game. Quick, secure, and confidential donation methods are linked to below this article and you will receive a very warm email from a member of our team. Thank you so much.

[ Sources: No.10 | EU Commission | EU Parliament ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sun 15 Nov 2020

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