Sunak’s Windsor Framework ‘gives back control’ to Brussels - a layman's guide
Brexit is in peril, with just two days to go to stop the PM and the EU selling it out
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023
No.10 says it will go ahead despite opposition from DUP and ERG MPs
On Wednesday the House of Commons order paper shows MPs are set to debate a ‘Statutory Instrument’ concerning the so-called Stormont brake. This is just one part of Rishi Sunak’s secretive deal with the EU Commission which will affect the whole of the United Kingdom permanently.
Quite remarkably, the Prime Minister will be treating this single 90-minute debate on one aspect of a multi-faceted and highly-contentious deal as giving him approval to sell out the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. No.10 has now said the Government intends to go ahead regardless of any opposition.
Today we present an important summary and paint a picture for the layman of the effect of the Windsor Framework in practice.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Brexit Facts4EU.Org provides a ‘real world’ scenario showing the EU’s control over the UK
- Both the DUP’s report and that of the ERG are likely to be negative
- No.10 now says it will proceed without DUP’s approval
- We imagine if Wigan were part of Northern Ireland
- The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP provides his worrying commentary
Imagine if the Windsor Framework were the Wigan Framework…
NOTE : What follows is based on OFFICIAL EU Commission documents, NOT Rishi Sunak’s version. This example is about medicines but we could have written about foods for supermarkets.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary - the 'Wigan Framework'
Based in Birmingham you are a small wholesaler of medical products. You have just received an order from a pharmacy in Wigan to supply children’s paracetamol. Here's what you will have to do.
- Contact your packaging supplier and get a quote for new packaging which specifies “Not for EU – UK only”.
- Go back to the customer in Wigan informing him of the increase in price due to the EU’s packaging requirements.
- If the customer still wants to go ahead, obtain EU-compliant customs forms from HMRC.
- Find the necessary 21 separate pieces of information about your product and complete this paperwork.
- Contact your local delivery company to arrange transport to Wigan.
- They tell you that they are not registered as an ‘authorised carrier’ under the EU’s Wigan rules.
- You try to find a carrier that is registered, get a quote, and set up an account with them.
- Wait until you are approved.
- Find out that you must be registered as a ‘Trusted Trader’ under the EU’s rules.
- You must now prove that you are of good financial standing, that you have a clear understanding of your obligations under the scheme and that you are able to correctly identify the goods you move to Wigan, in particular as regards goods that need to be declared with a higher level of detail.
- Your Company Financial Controller comes to see you, saying that the costs of fulfilling this order make it unviable.
- You phone your Wigan client and tell him the price has more than doubled, due to the EU’s rules.
- Exasperated but with desperate customers he reluctantly agrees, if he can receive the products by Wednesday.
- At 4pm on Wednesday you receive an irate call from the Wigan pharmacy, asking where their products are.
- You call the delivery company, who investigate and call you back two hours later.
- They tell you their truck was held up at the Wigan border due to a customs inspection required under EU rules.
- You protest that you did everything needed and you thought this would go through ‘the Green Lane’.
- The delivery company tells you that a significant proportion of Green Lane products will still be checked for the next two years.
- You call back the Wigan pharmacy. It is not a pleasant call.
- At a company meeting the next day, you inform all directors and staff that from now on they should decline all orders from Wigan, due to the Prime Minister’s Wigan Framework which he agreed in secret with the EU Commission, and then rail-roaded through Parliament with wholly inadequate scrutiny.
We barely scratched the surface in our scenario above
Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom just as much as Wigan is. If Wigan bordered an EU member country, then normal trade with Wigan would be as badly affected as Warrenpoint under Rishi Sunak’s secretive EU deal.
Our example highlights just a small number of the serious issues which are raised by Mr Sunak’s EU deal. We could go on and on, but we prefer to give readers something digestible.
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A highly-experienced MP speaks out
Yesterday (Sunday) we asked former Secretary of State the Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP for his views. Here is what he told our Chairman.
“This is putting the cart before the horse. Parliament first needs to have a full debate on the draft Agreement. The European Scrutiny Committee has posed many good questions over this complex set of changes to our constitution which have yet to be answered.
“The government has still to tell us which EU laws will apply in Northern Ireland, how wide ranging the powers of the European Court of Justice will be, what limits are placed on our ability to impose VAT and Excise taxes, why EU law on many items applies to trade between GB and NI and why it applies to factories and farms in the province not exporting to the EU. They have not yet released the forms traders will need to fill in to send goods from GB to NI or what are the terms of the trusted trader scheme which shippers will need to join and follow.
“The Stormont Brake itself is a burdensome arrangement. If two parties and the requisite number of NI Assembly members want to apply it, the UK government then has to decide if the criteria are met to allow its use and if they wish to use it, bearing in mind the ability of the EU to take retaliatory action. I can imagine UK government lawyers and officials urging caution any time some politicians wished to use the brake.
“When the EU built up the number of areas that could proceed by majority voting rather than unanimity in the EU we were always told there was the Luxembourg Compromise. This was a self-styled emergency brake which we could apply to an item we disagreed with which had gained the necessary majority to become law. The UK never used it and in due course it was deemed to no longer exist.
“When I wanted to use it as the UK's Single Market Minister I was blocked from doing so. If we had enjoyed an effective legislative brake on laws we did not like we would probably still be in the EU today. Instead the railroading of laws onto us was one of the main reasons we voted to leave.
“The Protocol should not be embedded into UK and international law. The Agreement looks as if it leaves too many EU laws applying to NI, still places obstacles in the way of GB to NI internal trade and does not allow us either a veto over laws nor a unilateral way out of this worrying Agreement.”
Observations
The Facts4EU layman’s guide to ‘Sunak’s Sellout of Sovereignty via Statutory Instrument’
Our Wigan scenario above gives some idea of the sheer absurdity of the PM trying to pretend that he has in any way addressed the fundamental issues of the NI Protocol. In fact he is in the process of making them worse with his ‘Windsor Framework’.
Some readers might wonder why Facts4EU.Org is writing so much about this matter. The reason is because it impacts Brexit as a whole and clearly demonstrates the likelihood of an inexorable march back into the EU – by stealth.
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[ Sources: No.10 | EU Commission | The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP | UK Parliament ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Mon 20 Mar 2023
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