JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE NEGOTIATORS
1. This statement, presented jointly by the negotiators of the European Union (Union) and
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), records the progress
made since the publication on 19 March 2018 of the draft Agreement on the withdrawal of
the UK from the Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (the Withdrawal
Agreement).
2. The statement details the articles of the draft Agreement where agreement has now been
reached at negotiators’ level, as well as those areas where further progress has been made.
Articles where agreement has now been reached at negotiators’ level
Agreement
3. Both Parties have reached agreement on the following articles of Part Three of the draft
Agreement1
:
– Title I – Goods placed on the market: Article 42 (Making available of information
held by notified bodies established in the United Kingdom or in a Member State);
– Title III – Ongoing value added tax and excise duty matters: Article 47 (Value added
tax);
– Title IV – Intellectual property: Article 56 (Pending applications for supplementary
protection certificates in the United Kingdom);
– Title VI – Ongoing judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters: Article 63
(Jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judicial decisions, and related
cooperation between central authorities);
– Title VIII – Ongoing public procurements and similar procedures: Article 72 (2)
(Rules applicable to ongoing procedures); Article 73 (Review procedures);
– Title IX – EURATOM-related issues: Article 79 (Ownership and rights of use and
consumption of special fissile materials in the United Kingdom); and
– Title XI – Administrative cooperation procedures: Articles 94 (Administrative
cooperation for matters related to indirect tax); Article 95 (Mutual assistance for the
recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures).
1 As in the colour-coded version of the draft Withdrawal Agreement published on 19 March 2018, these articles
are coloured in green, which means that they are agreed at negotiators’ level, and will only be subject to technical
legal revisions in the coming weeks.
4. In addition, both Parties have reached agreement on:
– Annex y+7 on time-limits mentioned in paragraph 1 of Article 45 (Ending of
temporary storage or customs procedures); and
– Annex y+4 referred to in Articles 46 (Access to relevant network and information
systems and data bases), 49 (Access to relevant network and information systems and
data bases), 94 (Administrative cooperation for matters related to indirect tax) and 95
(Mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other
measures).
5. The text of these articles and Annexes is annexed to this statement.
Areas outstanding
6. Both Parties have engaged on outstanding issues concerning the protection of data
processed before the end of the transition/implementation period (‘period’), geographical
indications, the treatment of ongoing police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters,
the finalisation of ongoing Union judicial and administrative procedures at the end of the
period and possible new procedures concerning facts arising before the end of the period,
consistent application and interpretation of the Agreement by both the Union and the UK
and dispute settlement.
Progress on the protocols to the Agreement
7. On Northern Ireland and Ireland, scoping work has continued on the full range of
provisions in the Protocol, in the context of both parties’ commitment to the Belfast or
Good Friday Agreement in all its parts. Both Parties recognise that the backstop on
Ireland/Northern Ireland requires provisions in relation to customs and regulatory
alignment in line with paragraph 49 of the Joint Report of December 2017. Discussions
were held on the UK proposal of 7 June which aims at addressing the customs aspects of
the backstop. The finalised results of the North-South mapping exercise on cross border
cooperation will be published shortly. The Parties are committed to accelerating work on
the outstanding areas, noting that both Parties agree the scope of the draft Protocol reflects
the issues that require legally operative agreed text in the Withdrawal Agreement.
8. On the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, both Parties have confirmed their commitment to
establish appropriate arrangements for the SBAs, in particular with the aim to protect the
interests of Cypriots who live and work in the SBAs following the UK’s withdrawal from
the Union, in full respect of the rights and obligations under the Treaty of Establishment.
The Parties have made progress in agreeing the text of the Protocol that will give effect to
this.
Next steps
9. The negotiators note that the progress recorded in this statement will contribute to the
finalisation of the Withdrawal Agreement, taking account of the framework for the future
relationship between the Union and the UK in accordance with Article 50. The negotiators
commit to making progress as quickly as possible on all aspects necessary to reach such
an agreement.