MEP Barbara Spinelli (GUE / NGL) spoke at the plenary session of the European Parliament on the “Guidelines on future relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom”, following the statements by the Council and the Commission:

“In recent days, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said a fair but incomplete thing: negotiations on future relations can not proceed if the United Kingdom does not offer on the North Ireland solutions that respect the Good Friday Agreement and protect the right of the Northern Irish to use the status of European citizens, therefore to be protected by the law of the European Union in all its aspects. On the other hand, negotiations need to continue on the crucial issue of European citizenship: a theme that can not abandon our minds. The Withdrawal Agreement, which will have the value of new international law, must be completed by autumn. Neither the Northern Irish, nor the European citizens in Britain, nor the British residing in the EU (altogether more than six million) can tolerate beyond the anxiety and legal uncertainty in which they live. Their rights of European citizenship must be safeguarded and fenced (ring-fenced) in good time and well “.

MEP Roberto Gualtieri (Pd-Sd), president of the Econ commission of the European Parliament, spoke at the Plenary on behalf of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the Brexit session: “No discrimination against citizens is acceptable during the transition period. We will not allow us to treat goods better than people. The December agreement must be translated legally so that the rights of citizens are fully safeguarded, and this must also apply to the most vulnerable categories: it is not for them but for the United Kingdom authorities to ensure that not a single citizen is unfairly deprived of his or her rights . In this respect the draft treaty, which we appreciate, should be further strengthened “.

As for future relations, Gualtieri said that since Theresa May has “excluded the single market and the customs union“, “we will work for a trade agreement that minimizes barriers, especially to the circulation of goods, but which will not It should be made clear that the Union can not delegate control of its customs frontiers to others and that mutual recognition of the rules does not exist outside the single market “. In any case – concluded Gualtieri – “we will not accept forms of social, environmental and fiscal dumping“.