Britain to EU: Keep hands off Chunnel
THE EUROPEAN Union has been told to keep its hands off the Channel Tunnel after Brussels attempted a power grab.
The late move by Michel Barnier’s negotiating team has been seen as “a Trojan horse” to impose EU jurisdiction over British territory which could also be used to block trade deals with other countries.
It comes as Brexit negotiator Lord Frost’s team accused the EU of “politicising” the negotiations and “overreaching” with their threats to ban UK food exports to Europe.
There have also been allegations that the EU is trying to stop former international trade secretary Liam Fox from becoming the new director of the World Trade Organisation.
The demand that the EU has governance over the link between London and Paris was added to the process in August – late in the negotiations.
It would give Brussels and the European Court of Justice control of the line through Kent to St Pancras station in London.
The Chunnel has for decades been governed via a bilateral agreement between Britain and France, through the 1986 Treaty of Canterbury.
But in a “hands off” response from the UK Government a spokeswoman said: “We have put in place a number of robust measures to ensure critical services continue through the Channel Tunnel at the end of the transition period, and are now in discussions with France to agree long-term arrangements to give operators long-term certainty.
“Any bilateral agreement must fully
respect the UK’S status as an independent sovereign nation – we will never sign up to demands to align with EU laws or be subject to the EU having a say.”
The EU move came in the middle of the row over Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill, a controversial proposal to change the law to ensure goods can move easily between the UK’S four nations after Brexit.
In a piece for Briefings for Brexit, civil servant Caroline Bell wrote: “This... seeks to usurp a bilateral arrangement that is sound in international law in order to be able to impose EU regulation and the
jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the United Kingdom.”
The move had caused outrage among Tory MPS.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said: “Time and again we have seen the French use the Channel Tunnel route to extend French interests and gain commercial advantage.
“This is another blatant French-inspired EU power grab to further French and not British trade interests. We should be resolute in making sure that arrangements on British soil work for us.”
Meanwhile, EU trade talks are set to continue in London this week – with time running out for a deal.
Sources close to Lord Frost described last week’s discussions as “a useful week” but warned “a wide gap still exists on the difficult areas such as fish and state aid”.
The source added: “We are still not seeing enough realism from the Commission. Some of their asks are at odds with the fact that on January 1 next year we will be an independent nation.”
However, the EU backed off on threats to block food exports from the UK.
The UK Government believes that this “shows that the EU’S threats didn’t stem from a genuine policy concern, but were simply a politicisation of the process”.
There is also anger that the EU refused to back Dr Fox’s bid for director of the WTO and voted for four other candidates.
A Whitehall source said: “Liam’s progression through this process is evidence of the global support we can command as a country with a huge reputation for supporting free trade. Whatever the eventual outcome of the nomination, it’s clear the UK doesn’t need EU support to make an impact as an independent nation.”
Meanwhile, Brexiteers have warned that the EU’S hardline tactics will end up causing it a financial crisis.
The EU last week gave permission to companies based in Europe to continue to use the City of London for financing.
Former Brexit minister David Jones said: “This is because they cannot raise the capital themselves and they really need the City of London.
“The problem they have is that the euro is a massive Ponzi scheme and they have no real means of underpinning it.”
‘A blatant French-inspired EU power grab to further French and not British trade interests’