Following United Kingdom's triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, Antonio TAJANI, EP President and Guy VERHOFSTADT (ALDE,BE), EP coordinator for the negotiations with the UK, express themseves in front of the press, following the Conference of Presidents in the EP in Brussels.
| SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, The first time that a member state has decided to leave us. Although we fully respect the democratic will of the majority of the British people but today is not a good day for Europe. | |
| 00:00:39 | SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI, EP President, Unilateral decision affecting the rights of EU citizens at any time before the UK's withdrawal, in 2 years time, will be contrary to the treaties and therefore illegal. The European Parliament must defend citizens' rights, this is why we need an agreement based on continuity, reciprocity and non-descrimination. Not reaching a deal on the right of citizens means not reaching a deal at all. |
| 00:01:16 | SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI, EP President,
Close cooperation on defence, police, intelligence and judicial matters should continue with the UK whether there is a deal or not. We are moving on. The Rome Declaration has given us a fresh start. I hope it will generate new momentum, taking Europe forward, while bringing it closer to its citizens. |
| 00:01:46 | SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, It's an absolute priority that the rights of the citizens are settled. And we think even that it needs to be the first point, the first issue to be tackled in the negotiations. So we want that this negotiations start with the right of the UK residents living in Europe and the EU residents living in Britain. Because we don't think and we are completely against the fact that citizens should become bargaining chips in a negotiation. And full protection of both sides is absolutely needed in accordance with the European Law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. |
| 00:02:36 | SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, Or as for the European Parliament the unity of the 27 is vital. And the best way to achieve this is to take on board the negotiation mandate of the Union, all the interest of the 27 member states of the Union, especially of the Republic of Ireland. Because we recognise as Parliament that there is a special threat on Ireland and also on Northern Ireland. And that new unrest in Northern Ireland has absolutely to be avoided. And therefore we are very clear, the Brexit agreement need to fully respect the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects and that means also that we will never accept a hard border again between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. |
| 00:03:41 | SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, We want to make clear that sectorial agreements cutting up the Single Market, in fact destroying the Single Market, won't be allowed. We are of the opinion that a future close partnership between the Union and the UK is an association agreement based on Article 217 of the Treaty. But what we shall never accept is that there is a trade of between the one and the other, saying 'oh' we can do a good agreement of security internal and external is there also a deal that we want, trade and economics. I think that the security of our citizens is far too important to start a trade of from one for the other. And in our point of view both are absolutely necessary in the future partnership without starting to bargain on this, one against the other. |
| 00:04:49 | SOUNDBITE (English), Guy VERHOFSTADT, Naturally it will never be the same, it will be the outside the Union better that inside the Union and that is not a question of revenge, that is not a question of punishment that is the logic of the European Union, of the European Treaties, of the European project. That together we created an added value for everybody of our countries and everybody of our citizens. |
| 00:05:18 | SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI, EP President,
Close cooperation on defence, police, intelligence, action against terrorism and judicial matters should continue with the UK whether there is a deal or not. For us the cooperation against terrorism, against crime is a priority. For this I hope a global agreement with the UK after Brexit, I think during these 2 years we have ti pave the way for a good agreement between us and the UK. First we need to decide the divorce, after the framework and then we need to pave the way for our future relations for the day after Brexit. As we said, we are in favour of a good relationship with the UK, we are not against the UK we are friends, but now we need to strengthen our interest during Brexit. |
