3. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the application of EU laws in Wales that are passed during any Brexit transition period? OAQ52451

I thank the Member for that question. If EU law continues to apply in the UK during transition, as Part 4 of the current draft withdrawal agreement envisages, EU legal obligations will need to be implemented domestically during that period.

Thank you for that answer, Counsel General, because it is important that, if we do get an agreement, there will be a transition period, and as part of that we'll be expected to abide by EU laws. But the EU withdrawal Bill only transposes EU laws as of the final date, which is 29 March. So, it is therefore a year for clarifying that, during the period of 29 March 2019 until the end of the transition period, any EU laws that are passed in Brussels will need to be transposed into UK or Welsh laws here in the Assembly, under our control.

Well, just to be clear, the Welsh Government has supported throughout the efforts to secure a transitional period, and we very much welcome the agreement at the end of March European Council that there will be a transition period to 31 December 2020, subject to a final withdrawal agreement. We don't know, unfortunately, what approach the UK Government will take towards implementing EU laws during a transition period. We expect there to be a high degree of similarity between the practice now and during that transition to include a role in particular for Welsh Ministers, to make sure that EU law is implemented in devolved areas. Obviously, in order to ensure that single market participation and membership of the customs union in the short term is maintained, the acquis of European Union law, we'll need to be bound by those provisions. As I say, we don't know yet how that mechanism is proposed by the UK Government. As he will know, we are anticipating a withdrawal agreement and implementation Bill. It's our understanding that that will need to put mechanisms in place to deliver the UK's commitment, in terms of the transition period. We haven't yet had details of what that will contain. Obviously, we'll need to make a full assessment of that, and how it relates to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as it's now been passed, when we have full sight of that.