Llywydd, of course I never go into any discussion looking to sell Wales's interest short, and I'll continue to work with colleagues elsewhere in the United Kingdom to make sure that the EU withdrawal Bill can be put in a position where we could recommend it to the floor of this Assembly, and if we can't achieve that then we will make no such recommendation to you.

Llywydd, the Bill in front of the Assembly, should it be agreed today, does not aim to frustrate Brexit, it does not aim to delay Brexit; rather it embodies our recognition that legislation is required to provide legal stability and continuity as the UK withdraws from the European Union. It is critical that the statute book ensures clarity and certainty for citizens and businesses during this unprecedented period of change.

It has long been the view of the Welsh Government that legislation on a UK basis would be the best way of achieving continuity, stability and certainty. It has therefore been a huge disappointment that the UK Government's European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, which should have been the vehicle for ensuring that legal continuity, has instead been drafted in such a way that it undermines the existing devolution settlement and is itself a source of instability and uncertainty.

The prohibitions and restrictions that it places on the powers of this Assembly and the Welsh Ministers to legislate on matters that have long since been devolved to us are simply unacceptable. The powers it provides for the UK Government to take control of laws and policy responsibilities that are devolved are equally unacceptable. Since the UK Bill was introduced last July, the Welsh Government has worked tirelessly to see it amended so that it properly respects the devolution settlement. The UK Government has been given every possible opportunity to come to an agreement on this issue and to accept either the amendments that we published in conjunction with the Scottish Government or bring forward suitable amendments of its own. Indeed, it promised to do just that in December of last year. Here we are in March and still nothing.

So, Llywydd, although, as I reported to the Assembly last week, progress has been made on this matter in recent weeks, we have not yet reached a point where we can be satisfied that the withdrawal Bill will be amended so as to meet all concerns. We are therefore left with no choice but to bring forward our own continuity Bill, the Law Derived from the European Union (Wales) Bill, the LDEU Bill, which both ensures the law in Wales remains fully operable after exit day and provides that decisions about devolved laws are made in Wales and by this Assembly, hence the need to bring forward a Bill and to do it on an emergency basis.

Having given the UK Government as much time as possible to make the necessary changes to its Bill, we have left the introduction of the LDEU Bill to the last possible moment, but that last possible moment has now arrived. Implementation of the Bill will require a substantial, indeed a wholly unprecedented, volume of legislative action on the part of the Welsh Ministers and the National Assembly. The limited time left between now and exit day means that the application of the normal Bill procedures would defeat its own object by leaving too little time for implementation once a Bill had been passed.

We also need to allow space for Parliament to respond to the Assembly's voice on this matter. Should the Assembly decide to pass this Bill, it will demonstrate the strength of feeling in Wales that those decisions on preparing devolved legislation for Brexit are a matter for the National Assembly.