EU To Seek Extension Of EU-UK Deal Ratification Deadline: RTE

RTE's Tony Connelly tweets a long thread on the potential extension of the deadline for the ratification of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, provisionally applied since 1 Jan. Select parts of the thread below.

• "The EU will seek an extension to the deadline by which the free trade agreement with the UK must be ratified, @rtenews has learned.Two sources have said member states want to extend the deadline from the end of Feb to some time in April."
• The treaty is currently being provisionally applied and will only be formally ratified once the European Parliament gives its consent. The extension request is designed to give both member states and the European Parliament more time to scrutinise the treaty and to allow the text to be translated into 23 official languages. Because the EU UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TC) was struck long past several informal deadlines, both sides agreed that the treaty would apply provisionally on Jan 1, with a target date of the end of Feb for the treaty to be formally ratified by the European Parliament.
• According to two sources, member states are keen to get a greater understanding of the governance aspect of the treaty, especially the circumstances in which retaliatory action can be taken if there is a breach of the level playing field provisions. National capitals are also pressing to have a more assertive role in deciding if the level playing field provisions have been breached.
• Sources say member states want a stronger voice in the area, alongside the European Commission, which traditionally monitors the application of free trade agreements.
• "The European Parliament needs more time, the Council [of the European Union] needs more time to produce the authentic language versions and there's also this discussion on governance which is also going to be more protracted than people thought," one diplomat said. "Nobody wants to rush a conclusion by the end of February so a number of member states are saying we need to do it later."