4. Urgent Question: The European Economic Area Agreement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:42 pm on 29 November 2016.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:42, 29 November 2016

Well, thank you. You’ve asked a number of questions, I think, that raise complex, specific and highly technical legal questions, which the Welsh Government will want to consider carefully and thoroughly in due course. With regard to the triggering of article 127, I think some of those issues may well be determined on the matter of principle in the article 50 case that’s being heard in the Supreme Court next week, where we will probably anticipate judgment sometime in early January. So, in terms of the process, that may actually be the mechanism. In terms of what the implications might be for Wales, the agreement on the European Economic Area is one of the EU treaties that is woven into the fabric of our constitutional settlement by the Government of Wales Act 2006, so, when we know precisely what has happened, when we know precisely what the UK Government’s response is to that, and when we’ve seen the outcome of the article 50 case, if there are any specific issues that are directly relevant to Wales and Wales’s interest, then we will consider those accordingly and I will advise accordingly.