EU and the UK
date: 25/10/2019
Commission President Junker commends Brexit deal to the European Parliament
On 22 October, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addressed the European parliament at a debate on the conclusions of the European Council meeting of 17 and 18 October 2019. He said: “The Commission has worked tirelessly to negotiate and renegotiate an agreement with the United Kingdom, to respect the UK's decision to leave the European Union. We now have a new agreement, which – again – creates the legal certainty for an orderly withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. It took a huge amount of work to arrive at this point. I listened to Prime Minister Johnson in the same way as I listened to Prime Minister May. Our negotiators – mainly Michel Barnier – have once again worked around the clock. And once again, they have shown creativity and determination. The agreement we reached with the United Kingdom's government addresses this Parliament's demands – all Parliaments' demands. I will always regret the United Kingdom's decision to leave the Union. But at least we can look ourselves in the eye and say that we have done all in our power to make sure that this departure is orderly. In this same spirit, we have done everything in our power to prepare the European Union for all eventualities, irrespective of what is happening on the other side of the Channel. We need now to watch events in Westminster very closely. But it is not possible, not imaginable that this Parliament would ratify the agreement before Westminster will have ratified the agreement – first London, then Brussels and Strasbourg.”
European Commission approves the British Capacity Market scheme
On 24 October, following an in-depth investigation, the European Commission approved under EU State aid rules the British Capacity Market scheme introduced in 2014 to safeguard security of electricity supply. In July 2014, the Commission found the British Capacity Market scheme to be compatible with EU State aid rules. In November 2018, following an appeal of the Commission's 2014 decision by a company operating in the market, the General Court annulled the Commission's decision on procedural grounds (Case T-793/14). While the General Court did not rule on the compatibility of the British Capacity Market scheme with EU State aid rules, it considered that the Commission should have opened an in-depth investigation to gather more information on certain elements of the scheme. These elements related in particular to the participation of energy consumers offering to reduce their electricity consumption in times of supply disequilibrium (so-called “demand response operators”) to the scheme.
Latest news on the Article 50 negotiations can be found here