No, you did not. Thank you very much indeed for identifying me.
What did the Prime Minister say at the meeting in Munich? She talked about safeguarding our internal security in Europe and explained that, because of various recent “terrorist atrocities”, that is a subject that is close to home and that she knew that personally. She said:
“We must … ensure that nothing prevents us”
—she was talking to the European heads of Government—
“from fulfilling our first duty as leaders: to protect our citizens.
And we must find practical ways to ensure the co-operation to do so.”
When the Law Society started to look at Brexit matters, we issued the UK Government with a set of priorities for negotiations from the perspective of Scotland’s solicitors. We talked about areas of public interest such as ensuring stability in the law; maintaining freedom, justice and security; ensuring that there is mutual recognition of citizens’ rights throughout the EU; creating arrangements to deal with pending cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union; and looking towards ensuring that respect is given to the devolved Administrations, Parliaments and legislatures and to Scots law. When we look at the set of priorities that, in November 2016, we suggested should be taken up in any negotiations, it is evident that we are still working our way through it.
In December, the European Commission and negotiators from the task force on article 50 negotiations with the United Kingdom issued a joint report on the negotiations with the UK Government. In the guidelines that the European Council issued on 15 December, it explained that, among other things, there would be a
“readiness to establish partnerships in areas unrelated to trade and economic cooperation, in particular the fight against terrorism and international crime, as well as security, defence and foreign policy.”
It is clear, therefore, that those issues were discussed throughout 2016 and 2017, and we have reached a position at which the Prime Minister has come up with the suggestion of a new treaty.
If we are looking at the options for replacing existing EU law, the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill tells us, to some extent, what is going to happen. The removal of the European Communities Act 1972 and the transposition of EU directives and the acquis from EU law into UK law will come about through measures such as the creation of EU-derived domestic legislation and the incorporation of direct EU law. The process relating to the bill tells us that there is going to be a transposition effect. However, it is important that we identify that there is an element of reciprocity in most, if not all, areas of criminal justice and related aspects of home affairs.
The convener referred to the proposed creation of a new treaty, which is clearly one of the options that we could adopt to deal with the situation that we are in. It would be possible for us to keep the European arrest warrant framework decision, and for the EU to deal with us as a third country. Another option would be a specific European arrest warrant agreement. For extradition purposes, we could rely on the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, and there could be separate bilateral agreements. However, the option that the Prime Minister has identified, which is a new UK-EU security treaty, would seem, in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, to be the option that people would ideally move towards, given the reciprocal nature of many of our obligations.
However, we need to confront and raise awareness of one issue in particular. Does any member at the table have the capacity to go on the internet just now? If so, perhaps you could look up “Sky News Brexit countdown”—