UK to ditch £15bn deal if Brussels goes hostile
Leaked paper shows ministers prepared to walk away from EU flagship science projects
BRITAIN is working on plans to withdraw from three major EU research programmes, which would see Brussels denied up to £15billion funding.
Amid deteriorating relations with Brussels, the Government has commenced work on domestic alternatives should the UK pull the plug on Horizon Europe, Copernicus and Euratom.
They are the bloc’s €90 billion (£77billion) flagship scientific, satellite, and nuclear programmes, which the UK agreed to remain part of when it signed the Brexit trade deal last year.
It suggests that ministers are actively drawing up measures to mitigate retaliatory options open to the European Commission, should Britain be forced to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol in the coming weeks.
The UK is set to contribute £2.1 billion annually to the seven-year Horizon programme in order to maintain access for British scientists and researchers to pan-European projects and funding.
It has also secured access to the Copernicus Earth observation programme, deemed vital to the UK space sector, while reaching a separate deal on continued involvement in the Euratom nuclear research programme.
However, its entry has been stalled by the EU, despite other non-member states such as Norway already receiving their formal association status, meaning British institutions are missing out on research and funding opportunities.
A leaked Government paper, circulated this week at a Brexit Cabinet subcommittee, has revealed that ministers believe the delay is a deliberate bid by Brussels to create leverage in the talks over NI, and that soon the programmes will stop representing value for money.
Last night, a senior government source said: “Blocking the UK from joining Horizon is in no one’s interest – we can’t participate and they lose our financial contribution. We’re having to look at alternatives in case the EU does block our access, which would be a breach of what we agreed less than a year ago.”
Another said the EU was at risk of breaching its obligations under Article 710 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The leaked document states that while there is hope the EU could still de-escalate, departments have been told to prepare “alternatives to each programme in case association should not prove possible to a satisfactory timeline”.
It is also understood that Lord Frost has been working with Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, on reviving a British alternative to Horizon Europe, known as the Discovery Fund.
Sources familiar with the plans say that a target date of early 2022 has been discussed and that any domestic schemes would be funded from the money that would have otherwise gone to the EU programmes.
In a sign that frustration with Brussels is at all-time high, the paper goes on to state that work should begin even though the “programme benefits cannot be fully replicated in domestic alternatives” and that withdrawing “would impact the ambition to become a science superpower”.
Restoring Britain’s place as a world leader in science is a key plank of the Prime Minister’s vision for Global Britain. The plans come amid growing expectation that Mr Johnson could soon trigger Article 16, the so-called nuclear option enabling the UK to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
While the UK and EU remain locked in talks, senior Government figures have revealed that the negotiations have so far failed to deliver any meaningful progress. Last night they also broke cover to publicly criticise the
EU’s plan to fix the protocol, warning that its proposals to cut customs checks, paperwork for hauliers and barriers to medicines flowing from GB to NI fall far short of what was promised.
While the talks ultimately hinge on the future role of the European Court of Justice in the province, UK negotiators say that several of the EU proposals are “actually worse” than the grace periods currently in force.
Lord Frost’s team have singled out the Commission’s vow to slash the number of checks by 50 per cent, arguing that they fail to remove a single product from having to go through typical customs processes and are too narrow to have any impact on a significant number of businesses.
The UK continues to argue that most of the checks on goods which pose no risk of leaking into the EU’s Single Market should be removed.
They have also challenged the EU’s claim that its plans will reduce the amount of export certificates lorry drivers need to fill out to one per load, asserting that the majority of lorries destined for NI would still be stopped for checks. Even on medicines, the EU’s proposals are considered too complex to guarantee that the supply of some British drugs would remain viable, while some drugs for patients would continue to be supplied only on an emergency basis.
The UK is now preparing to pull out of the talks by the end of November should the EU fail to move, with a government source stating last night: “The EU’s proposals don’t deliver what they say on the tin. The number of checks and processes would still be unacceptably high, contrary to what the Commission said when they announced them.
“The Court of Justice would still be able to rule on laws in Northern Ireland, even though the people of Northern Ireland have no say on how they are made.
“When Maros Sefcovic comes to London next week, he must realise that a change in the EU’s approach is needed. If that happens, we’re optimistic that there is a way through this.”
Several figures in government believe that triggering Article 16 is now inevitable, with one warning: “Where we are right now is that the EU has shown zero signs of budging. If that’s all we have got to work with then it’s not the nuclear option, it’s the only option.”