Signs of tentative progress over Brexit powers repatriation talks

While agreement still seemed a distant hope, a hint of movement on the thorny problem of the repatriation of agricultural powers from the EU was spied at yesterday’s meeting of the joint ministerial committee on European negotiations

NFU Scotland’s political affairs manager, Clare Slipper, said that while there had been no breakthrough on the so-called “deep dive” exercise looking at this issue, all sides seemed to recognise that some progress had been made.

“We understand that developments are being made in identifying the specific regulatory areas which should be managed on a Uk-wide framework, and other areas of policy which are best managed by the devolved administrations,” she said.

But Slipper added that while some consensus was welcome, there was urgency for a full agreement to be reached – and said she feared that clause 11 of the withdrawal bill was preventing this from happening: “NFUS is concerned by the implication of powers being reserved and asks whether this is necessary if common agreement can be found on the principles of future governance of agricultural frameworks.”

She said that the opportunity offered by Brexit to tailor bespoke agricultural polices across the UK would only be possible if the UK government recognised the need to grant flexibility to the devolved administrations to devise and implement the appropriate policy tools.