Leaked European parliament document says exit deal would be voted down if UK failed to commit to EU air pollution ceilings

Britain would be forced to abide by key EU environmental regulations by a pan-European court as part of any Brexit deal, according to a leaked document detailing the negotiating red lines being drawn up by the European parliament.

Drafted by MEPs, the paper says the UK should not be allowed to damage the wider European environment after its withdrawal from the EU by unilaterally weakening its commitments to reducing pollution emissions and protecting wildlife.

In a sign of just how far the government’s threat to become a low-tax, low-regulation state has misfired, the document warns that the European parliament would vote down any Brexit deal unless the UK promised to maintain current environmental protection levels.

The prime minister must also put the UK under the rule of a court of arbitration, which would ensure the country kept to its commitments, it adds.

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The demands would tie the hands of Theresa May should she wish to cut back on regulations post-Brexit, and offers to embarrass the prime minister by putting the UK under the auspices of a European court. The government has put removal from the jurisdiction of the European court of justice at the heart of its vision of the UK outside the EU.

The European parliament is drawing up a resolution that will detail what MEPs would find acceptable when any Brexit deal comes before them for consent in two years’ time.

On Tuesday lead MEPs on the environment committee are set to endorse its part of the resolution contained in the leaked document that is intended to shape the negotiations that take will place over the next two years between the European commission’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and the British government, and to ensure the European parliament feels able to give its final consent to a deal.

In the coming weeks, it will join input from other committees of the parliament. It is likely to form part of the chamber’s published and agreed resolution ahead of Brexit talks upon being signed off by the party political group leaders.



The paper, which “calls on the UK to continue to respect its environmental and climate change commitments”, illustrates the anxiety among many in Brussels about May’s government.

Britain is obliged to keep national emission of air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and ammonia beneath an EU agreed ceiling.

The MEPs write that in the long term there needs to be a “mechanism” to ensure the EU’s environment is not damaged by Brexit, but that in the short term May should also be forced to accept the current regulations during a transitional phase.

“Existing legislation which provides for commitments (financial, emissions reduction or of a political nature) cannot simply disappear on the day of Brexit and will require transitional measures,” they write.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The demands would embarrass Theresa May by putting the UK under the auspices of a European court. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

“[The parliament] expects the UK to implement the emission limits and other provisions decided under the NEC [national emissions ceiling] directive, as the rationale for setting national ceilings for such pollutants is based on their transboundary nature.”

The concerns described in the document mirror those of many senior politicians and environmental experts in the UK. Last year Lord Krebs, chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, said it was “absolutely crucial” that “governments in the UK replace European legislation and don’t see this as an opportunity to say we can now have dirtier vehicles or less efficient household appliances”.

The document also calls for a “swift” decision on where the European medicines agency, which employs 787 staff in London, will be relocated.

The MEPs write: “The good functioning of the European medicines agency must not be compromised as a result of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, as this could affect the approval process for innovative and lifesaving drug.”

Under the draft wording of the resolution, the European parliament would call for a “swift agreement over the relocation of the agency as well as transitional arrangement in order to limit the loss of skilled staff and their valuable expertise”.

It adds that the parliament “stresses the need to consider the budgetary implications of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on EU funds and programmes in the fields of environment, public health and food safety.



“In this context, [the European parliament] considers that for funds and programmes for which the financial term extends beyond the foreseen date of UK departure from the EU, UK commitments until the end of the financial term should be maintained where possible.”