"My opinion on the EU-UK relationship wants to chart out a way for those relations at the subnational level to be continued and not lost. The opinion also wants to assess the implementation of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and of course wants to examine how, or if the implementation of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) involves regions and cities in the EU and if this is allowing them to remedy the territorial impact of the UK's withdrawal from the EU." Michael Murphy CIVEX rapporteur for the opinion on EU-UK relations made these remarks when exchanging views on his opinion with the ECON Commission.
Murphy, who serves as Mayor of Clonmel Borough District recalled that last week, the European Commission announced the decision to allocate under the BAR €920.4 million in pre-financing to Ireland and 116 million to Italy out of a total of € 5.4 billion with more disbursements for other Member States due. This funding is meant to mitigate the impact of Brexit, supporting the numerous exposed Member State’s regions and economic sectors, including job creation and protection, such as short-time working schemes, reskilling and training.
While thanking the rapporteur for exchanging views with the ECON Commission members, Eddy van Hijum, Member of the Council of the Province of Overijssel (Economy, Finance and Europe) said that Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) have to look beyond BREXIT and build a new relationship. Referring to the fact that the UK is the second biggest trade partner for his region after Germany, van Hijum said "The BAR helps us respond to the economic shock and help SMEs build new connections and develop new market opportunities." Referring to the need to establish new relationships with regions in the UK, van Hijum added "It is clear that regions in Scotland and Wales really want to connect to European regions, and we must do this by finding avenues for trade, student exchanges, R&D and other forms of economic cooperation.
Deirdre Forde, Councillor Cork City Council said that the EU and UK were closely intertwined and that a new level of cooperation had to be established through LRAs. "Our response to the current BREXIT situation must be calm. We must nurture our relationship with the UK from the smallest communities on the ground, due to our long shared history through dialogue and cooperation ."