Diolch, Llywydd. I've brought forward this statement today in order to give the Assembly an update on our priorities for Brexit for the remaining months of 2019, and hopefully to take some of the politics out of this as well. Members might have heard this said before many times at various points during the Brexit process, but nevertheless we are entering a critical phase between now and 31 October of this year. The decisions made over the coming months will have far-reaching consequences that will shape our politics for many, many years to come, and although many of these decisions will take place in Westminster, there are still a number of areas where we as a committee will focus our efforts on behalf of Wales.

Yesterday we heard again from the Brexit Minister a statement, and I appreciate very much the continual updates we receive from the Minister. But as we heard yesterday, it was very much a stagnant position in Westminster because not much is going on there. Llywydd, in my statement today I would like to focus my comments on three priority areas that we believe are important for Wales: Brexit preparedness, particularly in terms of the implications for our economy; the risk to devolution and the future of the union of the United Kingdom as a consequence of what may come; and the impact of Brexit on EU and European Economic Area nationals living in Wales.

During the last two and a half years, we have regularly examined the preparedness of key sectors in order to highlight the issues that are of particular importance to Wales. We have always focused on the issues that are relevant to Wales, and that's important for Members to remind themselves. This has included looking at the implications of Brexit for Welsh ports; taking a look at how public services in Wales are preparing; and examination of some of the implications for key sectors of the economy. Whilst much of this work has been done, it has to be noted that our work in this area, particularly in relation to no deal, cannot be considered to be an exhaustive list of the potential risks and benefits. In particular, it remains the case that the implications of leaving the EU without a deal could manifest themselves in unpredictable and damaging ways.