Brexit negotiators removed ‘adequate’ from worker rights plan

A UK government internal note on the results of Boris Johnson's Brexit deal renegotiation mentions the removal of the word "appropriate" from the UK-EU political declaration to explain the mechanisms for enforcing common social, environmental and labor standards after Brexit. It is.

The word "appropriate" seems to have been replaced by the word "appropriate".

According to an excerpt from the BBC written for the government's Whitehall Economic Partnership Steering Group, "Parties" will include a "sufficient" mechanism rather than a "sufficient" and not "sufficient" of the core stadium arena commitment " "In future deals with the European Union.

The result of this change is that it is now possible to argue that debating these commitments to employment, the environment, taxes, national aid and other standards is "not suitable for the future UK-EU relationship." You must receive binding arbitration.

Level stadium

This note, first leaked to the Financial Times and marked "official sensitive," includes a series of negotiation wins from Brexit deal renegotiations, weakening the scope and strength of Level Play Field Commitment (LPF), an important factor in the UK in the future. . -EU trade agreement.

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• What does the Brexit deal say about workers' rights?

"The previous protocol applied extensive LPF measurements across the UK in response to UK access to the EU market through a single tariff area.

"British negotiators successfully resisted the inclusion of LPF rules across all of the UK," the memo highlighted, bolding the last four words.

"The only level of arena provisions in the revised protocol are those needed to support national aid measures affecting the operation of a single electricity market and trade between NI and the EU."

The title of this note is "Updated by the Economic Partnership Steering Group (EPSG) in Level Play Field Negotiation".

This is the first time that it was the specific goal of PM's renegotiation to change the level arena activities agreed by Teresa May.

Weak provisions

Publicly, the PM focused on changing what was called the "anti-democratic backstop" rejected by the government's parliamentary ally, the Democratic Labor Union.

As a result, PM's new solution, which creates new trade and regulatory boundaries in the Irish Sea, further alienated DUP. But backbench eurosceptic conservatives won the deal.

Theresa May's 2018 contract included a number of common standards enforceable for the UK and the EU within a legally binding revocation treaty.

Some of these standards are related to EU legislation, while others are related to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labor Organization and the Council of Europe.

These were all removed along with the backstop, and the only criterion remaining in the entire transaction was a non-binding political declaration.

This note shows that weakening these provisions within the White Hole is a key part of the renegotiation.

Elimination, which is considered internal success, becomes a "much more open starting point for future relationship negotiations", enabling a "landing zone" for future transactions.

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The note, "Political Declaration Text, gives us a framework for negotiating an FTA-style commitment to the Level Playing Field." The note ends under the heading "Next steps."

This is a reference to the fact that, unlike the first Brexit deal agreed by Teresa May, the dispute resolution mechanism did not apply to existing standard EU free trade agreements.

Sam Lowe, Managing Director of the European Reform Center, said, “In the free trade agreement between Canada and Japan, the commitment to the level of the EU cannot be implemented because it is specifically excluded from the dispute resolution mechanism. For the same treatment. "

President James Cleverly, who spoke at the British BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, proposed an attempt to mitigate workplace rights or environmental protection.

"In many places we are already more advanced than the European Union," he said. "We are greatly improving our workers' rights through rising national living wages."

The government also added that it is tightening rules on marine protection and animal welfare.

The ministers on Saturday said the story about the leaked note was "not accurate" and "exaggerated."

The government also said: "The British government does not intend to lower workers' rights or environmental protection standards even after leaving the EU.

"The UK-level stadium commitment will be negotiated in the context of a future UK-EU free trade agreement, where we will balance rights and obligations that reflect the scope and depth of future relationships."