Draft EU Withdrawal Agreement

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 14 March 2018.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:46, 14 March 2018

I thank the Member for that question, which is absolutely crucial and refers back to the point that I just made about the absolute necessity of getting certainty, both for Welsh citizens and for businesses exporting to the rest of the EU. One of the most significant unknowns at the moment is the nature of the arrangements for implementing the withdrawal agreement. Dominic Grieve in the House of Commons brought forth a successful amendment and the UK Government will now bring forth a separate Bill. But we don't know in the Welsh Government when that will be introduced nor what it will say, nor what its relationship will be to the EU withdrawal Bill, for example. So, that's a clear example of the sort of uncertainty that we need to tackle straight away. We haven't been consulted by the UK Government on it and we don't know what devolution issues it raises in particular, which is obviously at the heart of this. We've seen, in the context of the discussions around the EU withdrawal Bill how absolutely essential those questions of devolution are, for us to protect our rights in this Chamber on behalf of the people of Wales. So, we need engagement from the UK Government on its proposed mechanism for implementing the withdrawal agreement as a matter of priority.