division_name: Covid-19: Future UK-EU Relationship
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b1523.3/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House welcomes the European Union&#8217;s openness to extend the transition period for negotiations; calls on the Government to immediately accept this offer and notes the Scottish Government&#8217;s publication of 3rd June entitled, &#8220;COVID-19: The Case for Extending the Brexit Transition Period&#8221;, warning of the damage a no deal would cause to the economy in addition to the cost of the covid-19 health crisis.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1527.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the <phrase class="date" code="2020-12-31">31 December</phrase> deadline would have been heroic: doing so in the midst of an international health crisis, with the energies of governments across Europe focused on their handling of the outbreak, seems out of reach.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1527.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We are within six months of Brexit and we still do not know what the future holds for us.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1527.1/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;an extension of up to one or two years can be agreed jointly by the two parties. The European Union has always said that we remain open on this matter.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1527.1/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;To put it mildly, progress in the negotiations has been very limited. I will continue to press for a good solution. But we in the EU and also in Germany must and should prepare for the event that an agreement is not reached after all.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1530.5/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Never before have the foundations of public support for the Union looked so weak.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1530.5/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the past three months have exemplified how Scotland could govern itself better as an independent, small country&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The ambition for our future friendship is contained in the revised political declaration&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2020-10-19">19 October</phrase> 2019; Vol. 666, c. 572.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;an ambitious, wide-ranging and balanced economic partnership&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;no tariffs, fees, charges or quantitative restrictions across all sectors&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/11" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;workers&#8217; rights, consumer and environmental protection&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/13" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;broad, comprehensive and balanced security partnership&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/17" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;there is a big gap&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/19" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;we are really in a quandary as to what way to turn&#8230;We need a bit of clarity because we haven&#8217;t a clue where we&#8217;re heading&#8212;It&#8217;s like walking out into the fog.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/22" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;A good deal with the EU will be just one strand of a national recovery plan as the UK responds to the coronavirus pandemic, but it will be one of the most important for the future of our economy, jobs and livelihoods.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/24" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;completely at a loss to understand how this framework can be achieved by <phrase class="date" code="2020-01-01">1 January</phrase> 2021.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1536.2/26" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;prioritise negotiating a deal with the EU that guarantees good jobs, rights and other protections rather than a deal with the US that stands to undermine these standards.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1545.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Never before have the foundations of public support for the Union looked so weak.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1548.3/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;To be absolutely clear and to repeat what I said in my contribution, the Government will fully respect the devolution settlement in respect of the UK shared prosperity fund and, I am sure, in all other respects.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2020-09-05">5 September</phrase> 2019; Vol. 664, c. 445.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1551.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I take this as a definite conclusion of this discussion&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1560.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;nations are best served when they govern themselves.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2020-07-14">14 July</phrase> 2020; Vol. 678, c. 1428.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1566.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;may focus minds on arriving at a timely deal.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1567.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;As the powers to make these rules are repatriated to the UK from the EU, we have an opportunity to determine the level best placed to make new laws and policies on these issues, ensuring power sits closer to the people of the UK than ever before.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1584.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Devolution will kill Scottish nationalism stone dead.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1588.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;This transition period is due to finish on December 31, but it can be extended&#8230; as long as that is agreed by the end of June. After that date, it will not be possible to extend under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement&#8212;and no other plausible route to an extension has been put forward.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1604.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;at the bottom of economic league tables&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1607.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In 1988, Margaret Thatcher proudly declared that the barriers to trade in Europe were coming down&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b1607.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;is putting the barriers back up.&#8221;</p>