MNI EXCLUSIVE: EU-UK Deal Could Be Applied Provisionally

UK and EU officials will find a way to ratify or provisionally apply a post-Brexit trade deal even if negotiations run close to the Dec. 31 deadline, although sources noted to MNI that a deal, while growing more likely, is still not assured.

Any agreement in coming days would likely be scrutinised by European Parliament committees before going to a full vote at a possible special plenary meeting on Dec. 28. Committee members feel confident they can advance legal texts more quickly than usual as they are fully briefed on the work to date and would only need to examine the latest additions in detail.

"Certainly, we stand ready to organise a plenary and vote before the end of the year," an EP source said.

PROVISIONAL APPLICATION

A thornier, if not insurmountable, problem comes if negotiations push closer to the Dec. 31 end of the UK's Brexit transition period. If agreement is only reached then, EU heads of government could approve its provisional application until a treaty can be fully ratified by the European Parliament.

"This is the way that provisional application would probably have to work – under Article 218 (of the Lisbon Treaty)," an EU diplomatic source said.

In London, the timetable and sitting hours of Parliament are in the hands of the government's business managers. Most years, Westminster breaks for the Christmas holidays around Dec. 20, but this year, the only promise from Jacob Rees Mogg, senior legislative coordinator, is that the House will not sit on Dec 25 and that it will not get in the way of a Brexit deal.

This gives the UK ample latitude before Dec. 31 to either ratify any trade agreement, or, if no solution is found, to pass legislation needed to ensure continued operation of trading functions from Jan. 1.

Meanwhile, a source close to negotiations said a deal allowing both sides to claim triumph on crunch issues such as level playing field rules and access to fisheries could be ready within days. Details are still to be hammered out on institutional mechanisms for retaliation for any deviation from LFP rules, which will both satisfy the EU with its rigor and the British that it cannot be manipulated at the convenience of Brussels. But a UK retreat on calls for fishing vessels in UK waters to be majority British-owned has unblocked one of the toughest issues.