Britain and EU need to move past zero-sum talks and co-operate on post-Brexit security

The messy divorce of Britain from the EU may result in day-to-day challenges for both parties, but the stakes are especially high when it comes to post-Brexit security arrangements.

In an editorial yesterday, the foreign ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Romania made a veiled criticism of Brussels’s uncompromising attitude and took a clear stance in favour of close post-Brexit security collaboration.

Both sides risk being weakened by zero-sum Brexit talks. Britain is likely to lose access to crucial information-sharing systems designed in response to terrorist attacks in Europe.

London wants post-Brexit police and counter-terrorism co-operation, including the possibility of exchanging criminal records with the EU. France, which suffered several terrorist attacks on its soil, also wants security co-operation.

However, cutting off a nuclear power that is guarantor of approximately one fourth of Europe’s defence capabilities is also bound to take a toll on EU foreign policy.

Theresa May’s government has been arm wrestling the EU for access to the European Arrest Warrant, a system that allows the extradition of criminals within the bloc.

In 2015, Hussain Osman, one of the perpetrators of the July 21 failed bombing attacks on London’s transport system, was arrested in Italy and returned to Britain within a week. Since 2010, Britain extradited more than 6,000 suspects to other member states and got eight suspects back.

Alongside the issue of access, there may also be an issue of cost. Britain has received a fifth of all EU research grants – £8 billion (Dh38.58bn) – since 2007, which it will no longer be able to access following Brexit on March 29 next year.

In June, former Brexit secretary David Davis said if the UK was frozen out of EU security sharing “we may no longer be able to protect the public when dangerous individuals move between the United Kingdom and the European Union”.

He was referring to ECRIS, the European Criminal Record Information System, which allows the exchange of information on criminal convictions among member states.

Through it, Britain received on average 78 reports per day about terror suspects, criminals and missing children found travelling through mainland Europe.