Another White Paper was announced yesterday (HERE) setting out details of the way we will implement the withdrawal agreement. The actual WP itself is HERE. Confusingly, the new bill is to be called the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill, this follows the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. It's hard to keep up with these legislative acts plus the steady stream of Statutory Instruments that are coming out like applying bits of Polyfilla to the thousands of cracks appearing in our statute book as a result of Brexit.
The WP has a rather cocky outlook but seems to have been written by Rip Van Winkle, recently woken up after the last sixteen months, because it says the UK is negotiating with the EU "at pace". By comparison to the British government, glaciers are like formula 1 racing cars. We have spent the last sixteen months going round in circles and have now got up to the speed of a dawdle.
"The Government is confident that it is in the interests of both sides to reach a deal and so anticipates a successful conclusion of the negotiations. The UK is negotiating with the EU at pace to reach a substantive agreement on the Future Framework alongside the Withdrawal Agreement later this year".
Now have a look at paragraph 60.
On exit day (29 March 2019) the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 will repeal the ECA. It will be necessary, however, to ensure that EU law continues to apply in the UK during the implementation period. This will be achieved by way of transitional provision, in which the Bill will amend the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 so that the effect of the ECA is saved for the time-limited implementation period. Exit day, as defined in the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, will remain 29 March 2019. This approach will provide legal certainty to businesses and individuals during the implementation period by ensuring that there is continuity in the effect that EU law has in the UK during this time. The Bill will make provision to end this saving of the effect of the ECA on 31 December 2020.
March 29th 2019, always assuming there is a withdrawal agreement to implement, will be an extraordinary day. The 1972 European Communities Act will be repealed, and will be replaced by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which itself will then effectively be temporarily repealed until the end of the transition period and the 1972 ECA will then continue to apply. It's a case of now you see it, now you don't.
This bit of legalistic hokey-cokey is all to allow Theresa May to say we have left the EU in March next year. The fact that we will instantly rejoin the EU as a second class member without voting rights or MEP representation means that we will begin what BoJo would no doubt call a state of vassalage. Nobody, least of all me, expects the trade deal and future relationship to be settled and ratified by then so it's odds on that we will still be under EU law when the next election comes round, well the next scheduled one anyway.
I suppose we should be grateful. It gives time for the impact of Brexit to be felt and being still in the ante-room of the EU, presumably it would be relatively easy to switch back to full membership without too much trouble.
