8. 6. ‘Securing Wales' Future’: Transition from the European Union to a New Relationship with Europe

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:32 pm on 7 February 2017.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 6:32, 7 February 2017

Well, I have to say that that’s not the impression that is given by some in UKIP. It was just said that the EU needs us more than we need them. We need each other; that’s the reality of the situation. And, as David Rowlands said, we don’t want to be locked out of the single market. We don’t want to be locked out of the single market—we’ve got to be in the single market. It shows some of the confused thinking that is taking place here.

I know time is short, Llywydd, but I have taken interventions, with your indulgence. David Melding, as ever, always worth listening to—briefly, we need a council of Ministers that is similar to the one that exists in the EU; it needs to be a council of Ministers that agrees common policies and frameworks. If there are going to be state aids in the UK, they will have to be agreed. There are some who’ll argue that there shouldn’t be any state-aid rules at all. In that case, it’s a free-for-all within the UK and you start a trade war within the UK. That, surely, is in no-one’s interest. There needs to be an independent arbitration mechanism—probably a court—to arbitrate disputes when it comes to the interpretation of those state-aid rules. The UK Government can’t do it; it’s got a clear conflict of interest.

I have spoken to other Governments. I’ll turn to what Steffan Lewis has said very quickly.

Wel, nid yw’n wir i ddweud nad ydym ni’n gwneud dim byd. Rydym ni wedi gofyn am gonfensiwn cyfansoddiadol ers amser hir. Nid oes diddordeb gyda’r Alban; maen nhw’n moyn annibyniaeth. Nad oes modd cael unrhyw fath o gytundeb gan Ogledd Iwerddon o achos y sefyllfa fanna. Rŷm ni’n rhyngwladol—byddaf yn America ar ddiwedd y mis hwn er mwyn sicrhau ein bod ni’n dal i gryfhau’r cysylltiadau busnes rhyngom ni ac America. Rwyf i wedi siarad â Phrif Weinidog Gibraltar, yr Ynys Manaw, Jersey, Guernsey, y Taoiseach yng Ngweriniaeth yr Iwerddon, a hefyd, wrth gwrs, yr Alban a Gogledd Iwerddon. Nid yw’n iawn i ddweud, felly, nad oes dim byd wedi digwydd yn y cyfamser.

Finally, dealing with the point that Mark Reckless made, one of the things that I was interested in is what he said about EFTA being a possible way forward. I don’t want to misquote him; that’s what he said. I welcome that. EFTA, of course, has a court that governs trade relations between EFTA members and so the UK would be subject to that court. He’s nodding, so I’m glad for that clarification.

The other issue that, really, has never been addressed—and it is relevant to Wales—is the issue of the border. The reality is that the UK will have an open land border with another EU country. There is no way that the EU is going to say that, if you have a red passport with a harp on it, you’ve got freedom of movement into the UK, whereas, if you’ve got a red passport with any other emblem, you don’t. Nobody’s going to agree to that. So, the issue of Ireland is still very much unresolved. It affects us in Wales, because of the trade links that we have through the three ports into the Irish ports. We still have no answer as to whether there’ll be customs posts, as there were, border posts—there never have been in the past—there at those ports, with the affect that there will be on trade.

Finally, Llywydd, just to say this: we are away from the referendum debate now. The referendum has happened. There needs to be realism on both sides; we now need to work towards a sensible solution. So, for me, the message today has to be that we need to stop talking about a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, but let’s have, as far as Wales is concerned, a sensible Brexit.