Diolch, Lywydd. It has been nearly three months since the European referendum and, while many large questions remain unanswered, it is possible to see more clearly some of the challenges that must now be faced both by the Welsh Government and the UK as a whole. The day after the referendum, I identified six key priorities for Wales. They were: protecting jobs; full involvement for the Welsh Government in discussions on UK withdrawal; continuing access to the single market for goods and services; security of funding budgeted under EU programmes; long-term revision of the block grant; and a new post-Brexit relationship between devolved Governments and the UK Government. Three months on, these remain key priorities, and some important elements of progress have been made.

During the recess, I met the Prime Minister, and over the summer, there has been a wide range of ministerial contacts with key Whitehall figures, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. In July, I convened in Cardiff an extraordinary meeting of the British-Irish Council to create a wide-ranging discussion among the devolved Governments, the British and Irish Governments, and the islands’ Governments— all of which will be deeply affected in various ways by what happens next. The BIC will meet again in Cardiff in November for its next scheduled meeting.

Within the Welsh Government, we have established a European transition team, reporting directly to me, which has the task of leading and co-ordinating the Welsh Government’s approach. Our interests are complex and wide-ranging, and the Welsh Government has mobilised work across the substantial range of portfolio interests that are being impacted by the position. At a UK level, new arrangements are in development to enable specific dialogue between Welsh Ministers and our counterparts in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Whitehall, and I will say more about these as they are finalised.

A whole raft of working groups at official level, bringing together the Welsh Government with the UK and other devolved Governments, are also being established. The priorities that I have outlined are among the topics being discussed in these networks. I have also established a Cabinet sub-committee on European transition, which met yesterday for the first time. Cabinet as a whole will, of course, supervise the Welsh Government’s work, but the sub-committee provides the right format for the detailed consideration of policy that we need to drive forward our agenda.

During August, the Treasury announced a partial guarantee for EU funding. This means that the level of funding for Welsh farming under CAP pillar 1 will be guaranteed up to 2020, but not beyond—that’s the end of this European financial perspective. For the important research funding under Horizon 2020, universities and business can bid until we leave the EU, and the Treasury will work with the Commission to ensure payment even when projects continue beyond the UK’s exit. So far as CAP pillar 2 and structural funds are concerned, the Treasury will guarantee funding for projects that are, as they have put it, ‘signed off’—I’m not clear what that means—before the autumn statement.

I am particularly pleased that CAP pillar 1 funding has been settled until 2020. This means that we have some time to work with farmers and our rural communities and, in the period ahead, to allow a national debate on how best to secure a vibrant future for the Welsh countryside in the long term. The Treasury position goes some way towards meeting the Welsh Government’s demands, but not far enough, the question being, ‘What happens after 2020?’

The Treasury guarantee is not comprehensive and leaves holes, particularly in respect of structural and investment funds that have not been committed by the time of the autumn statement. We will continue to press for a full guarantee, with the aim of ensuring that communities across Wales don’t lose out on opportunities to improve their prospects as a result of the referendum outcome. Campaigners for Brexit said Wales should not lose a penny in European funding, and we will hold them to that promise.

I also announced during the summer the establishment of an EU advisory group. This will be chaired by Mark Drakeford and draws together a range of expertise from civil and political society in Wales, with a view to generating a wide sense of Wales’s interests as EU negotiations continue. We’re also establishing an additional liaison committee with Plaid Cymru focused on EU transition issues. The challenges facing us as a nation are wide and deep, and the Government has no monopoly on the answers. We need a national debate on these questions, in this Chamber and beyond, and voices who want to contribute constructively to that debate will find a Welsh Government that’s very ready to listen.

Nowhere, Llywydd, is the future challenge greater than in the economy. I chaired a meeting of the council for economic renewal on 25 July, and we are hoping to meet again in October. Last week, I visited three cities in the US to promote Wales as an investment and trade partner. We will do everything that we can to build confidence in Wales abroad, and I ask the whole political community to get behind this work and to support Welsh business. I will not—. I will ask those, rather, who attack our businesses as ‘fat and lazy’ to consider the impact of their remarks on the global stage and find ways to make immediate amends. Our business community is currently in need of clear leadership and solid relevant support, not base and unjustifiable attacks from Government.

Llywydd, let me be clear on the importance of continued full, unfettered access to the European single market for goods and services. It’s not enough to worry just about tariff barriers, though it would be absolutely disastrous for the Welsh economy if the EU were to impose import duties on UK goods and services as a result of botched negotiations over the UK’s withdrawal. It was successive UK Governments that pushed forward the single market precisely because it was recognised that non-tariff barriers, such as differing technical standards, could be used to impede genuinely free trade between ourselves and other member states and damage the competitiveness of Welsh and British businesses. We’ve heard about a Norwegian model, a Swiss model and others too. But, whatever the model, the Welsh Government’s top priority is continued and uninterrupted full access to the European market for goods and services. We can agree to nothing less.

Let me be clear, Llywydd, about the kind of country Wales has become through devolution and participation in the European Union. This is a country that aims to build prosperity while respecting values like inclusion, sustainability, equality and individual and collective rights. Surely, no one in this Assembly wants to live in a country defined by low wages, poor prospects, falling environmental standards, insecurity and diminishing public services. Anyone who sees departure from the EU as an opportunity to entrench privilege, to row back on the progress we’ve made towards living sustainably, to privatise public services, to undermine employment rights or to promote unfairness, will meet determined opposition from this Government and, I hope, from this Assembly. Let me say, without hesitation, that our position is that the UK Government should give unconditional guarantees to EU nationals already living in this country that they have nothing to fear in terms of their rights to live and work here in the future without any discrimination.

The Prime Minister is very clear that the UK will leave the European Union, and that is something, of course, we all accept, though it’s becoming increasingly urgent that they give greater clarity as to the basis on which they hope to achieve that goal. We as a Government are clear, equally, that leaving the European Union does not mean leaving Europe—still less does it mean turning Wales’s back on Europe. Wales is, and will remain, part of Europe. It’s a matter of commercial interest, certainly, but also a matter of shared values, vision, culture and ambition. Our friends and neighbours in Europe will continue to be our friends and neighbours in Europe and we will find other ways of working with them.

Llywydd, there are many complexities associated with a UK withdrawal from the EU. Among the issues that must be addressed are the Scottish Government’s ambition to remain in the EU and the border question on the island of Ireland. These are among the many questions to which, frankly, the answers aren’t yet known. Of one thing I am clear: the UK can’t turn the clock back to 1973. As we contemplate a changed relationship with our European neighbours, so we must also contemplate changed relationships here within the UK. This is a matter of necessity as well as choice. Devolution has operated thus far exclusively in an EU context. A UK exit from the EU implies a fundamentally different relationship between the devolved Governments and the UK. We need open minds and imagination to develop a new, dynamic and durable UK.

Llywydd, the EU referendum campaign was divisive, and the result traumatic for some. But the result cannot and should not be ignored, as I’ve acknowledged from day one. The Welsh Government is tasked with leading Wales’s interests as negotiations unfold. But we’re talking about the long-term future of our country, and the issues raised go far beyond the interests of any particular Government or, indeed, any particular political party. I hope that in the months and years ahead we will have an inclusive and wide debate about how best to protect Wales’s interests and what kind of country we want Wales to be.