Last week Michel Barnier ruled out the UK staying in the European Defence Agency and Europol. Now we learn from Sky News (HERE) that the government is pitching to try and remain in the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). It is even possible that the EU will grant it. But they may not. There are third countries such as Norway and Switzerland who are members but they contribute to the costs but have no voting rights and accept ECJ jurisdiction, although apparently only indirectly - whatever that means.
The Americans have forced this on us because they were demanding that we come up with a legal structure that would be subject to US inspection, within weeks! This is obviously out of the question so we are forced to go cap in hand to Brussels and plead with them to give us some sort of associate status of an organisation we have been full members of since it was founded.
We will be a rule taker not a rule maker.
Expect the same thing to happen on other agencies too.
So, the current state of UK membership of EU agencies post March 2019 is:
Europol - OUT
European Defence Agency - OUT
European Aviation Safety Agency - We're applying to stay in - no decision yet
