Bidding farewell to Euratom, European courts

BRITAIN fleshed out its Brexit negotiating stance on nuclear, justice and other matters yesterday before the first full round of talks with the EU next week, underlining it would quit nuclear body Euratom and the jurisdiction of European courts. In three position papers, Britain said it wanted the transition to being outside the EU to be as smooth as possible and foresaw a transitional period to help ease the winding up of the bloc’s operations in Britain. “The scope and duration of such a transitional period may be different for different types of asset or agency,” the British government said in a paper on “Privileges and immunities”. In a separate paper, it also said that Britain had been advised by the EU that it had to leave Euratom, because the treaties governing it and the EU were “uniquely legally joined”. “It is clear that the UK and the Euratom Community have a strong mutual interest in ensuring close co-operation in the future, to harness shared expertise and maximise shared interests,” said the paper on “Nuclear materials and safeguards issues”.