Press remarks by Executive Vice-President Sefcovic following the meetings of the EU-UK Joint Committee and EU-UK Partnership Council

Remarks EVP Sefcovic EU-UK Joint Committee

Good evening. I am glad to be here to inform you about very important meetings I hosted today.

First, with the United Kingdom, we met in the context of the EU-UK Joint Committee on the Withdrawal Agreement and the EU-UK Partnership Council under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

You have seen our joint statement issued earlier, which allows me to highlight a few main points.

In the Joint Committee that I co-chaired with Foreign Secretary David Cameron, we discussed two issues that are the necessary cornerstone of our relationship with the UK: the implementation of the Windsor Framework and the issue of citizens' rights.

On citizens' rights, this remains a clear priority for the EU, including for the European Parliament and our Member States – and therefore, we can never let our guard down because it impacts real lives.

Put simply, in this important area, all beneficiaries on both sides must always enjoy all rights guaranteed by the Withdrawal Agreement.

I am glad that we share this commitment. The hard work continues.

Turning to the Windsor Framework: let me begin by reiterating that the Framework is a remarkable achievement with tangible benefits for people and businesses in Northern Ireland – therefore, it both requires and deserves faithful implementation in all its dimensions.

And it is already delivering on the ground.

Therefore, I am glad that we have agreed to intensify our work and efforts to make sure that all the elements of the Windsor Framework are put in practice in a faithful and timely way.

On the Partnership Council, our objective remains the same: to fully exploit the potential that our Trade and Cooperation Agreement has to offer.

I believe that the deliverables we have seen since our last Partnership Council in March last year speak for themselves – Horizon Europe, Copernicus or regulatory cooperation on financial services, to name a few.

Today, we discussed in particular climate and energy, health security, fisheries, and competition issues, as well as security in general.

We identified a number of areas in which the EU and the UK can deepen their cooperation. And we looked ahead to over 25 meetings of our joint bodies under the TCA this year alone.

There is no doubt that the EU and the UK face many common challenges, often global in nature. Take for instance, Russia's war against Ukraine or climate change – we very much value our close cooperation on these issues.

In this context, I believe that today's Partnership Council has set the right tone for our joint work under the TCA.

Following these two important meetings, I hosted talks on Gibraltar with Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares, and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, together with Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo.

This was our second meeting in this format, building on significant progress of 12 April.

As said, today's discussions took place in a constructive atmosphere, with important breakthroughs and additional areas of agreement.

We all are reassured that the agreement is getting closer and will work closely and rapidly on outstanding areas towards an overall EU-UK agreement.

Today's meeting reaffirmed our shared commitment to concluding an EU-UK Agreement, to bring confidence, legal certainty and stability to the lives and livelihoods of the people of the whole region, by protecting and improving economy, trade, mobility, environment, and social wellbeing, while safeguarding all parties' legal positions.

We all agreed to remain in close and constant contact.