April 6, 2020

The summary outlines progress made in each of these fields: citizens’ rights; civil and criminal justice; consumer protection; and intellectual property. It also highlights remaining areas of concern.

Key points include:

• Citizens’ rights: for EU citizens living in the UK, the Government’s EU Settlement Scheme appears to be working well: more than 3 million applications have now been made to the scheme, and 2.7 million people have been granted some form of status. However, a large proportion have been granted pre-settled, rather than settled, status, meaning that issues may arise when those applicants need to apply for settled status. There are also concerns over the lack of physical documentation and the difficulties some vulnerable groups face applying to the scheme. As for UK citizens living in the EU, many of their concerns were addressed in the Withdrawal Agreement. Some Member States will require people to register in order to secure these rights and it is too early to tell how well these systems are working;
• Criminal justice co-operation: there are concerns about the consequences for the UK if it loses access to the current systems of close co-operation: the quantity of information available to UK law enforcement would significantly decrease and the time required to obtain information would significantly increase. The UK Government’s position on continued adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights, and whether the EU is satisfied with the UK’s level of personal data protection, is likely to be central to the level of future cooperation that is possible;
• Consumer protection: there is concern at the possibility that the UK Government could seek to reduce the current shared standards in order to secure trade agreements with other countries. The Committee would therefore welcome a public statement from the Government that it remains committed to high standards of consumer protection. There is also concern that the Government does not appear to be pursuing continued membership of the various EU consumer protection-related agencies;
• Civil justice co-operation: standardised rules relating to (and mutual recognition of) marriage and divorce proceedings, child custody, contract disputes etc are valuable to those whose lives span more than one Member state. There is concern that there is no simple mechanism for UK citizens to continue to benefit from the level of protection that exists currently (although some lesser protection exists by virtue of international treaties such as the Hague Conventions); and
• Intellectual property: the UK Government recently informed the industry that it no longer intends the UK to participate in the Unified Patent Court system. The system sits largely outside EU law and EU institutions, and so advocates in the sector had hoped participation would not be affected by Brexit.

To read the summary in full, click here.