May seeks wide-ranging post-Brexit EU security pact
munich — British Prime Minister Theresa May urged her country’s European Union partners on Saturday not to let “rigid institutional restrictions” get in the way of a wide-ranging post-Brexit security alliance, warning that there would be “damaging real-world consequences” if none can be agreed.
In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, May sought to reassure foreign and security policy leaders on Britain’s future commitment to European security.
“Europe’s security is our security — and that is why I’ve said, and I say again today, that the United Kingdom is unconditionally committed to maintaining it,” she said.
The British government has already called for a wide-ranging security treaty with the EU to ensure that intelligence-sharing and lawenforcement
We must do whatever is most practical and pragmatic in ensuring our collective security, Theresa May, British Prime Minister
cooperation continue after Brexit, scheduled for March 2019. Such a deal would allow Britain to remain a member of the EU police body Europol and keep use of the European Arrest Warrant, which allows for the quick extradition of suspects.
But it has been unclear what legal framework would underpin such a treaty, because Britain says it will leave the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. May said the challenge is to put together a “deep and special partnership” with the EU to retain and further cooperation.
“This cannot be a time when any of us allow competition between partners, rigid institutional restrictions or deep-seated ideology to inhibit our cooperation and jeopardize the security of our citizens,” she said. “We must do whatever is most practical and pragmatic in ensuring our collective security,” she added.
May said there’s no existing security arrangement between the 28-nation EU and a non-member that reflects the full depth of the existing EU-UK relationship, but argued that there’s precedent in “comprehensive strategic relationships” in fields such as trade and there’s “no legal or operational reason” why such an accord couldn’t be reached on security. —