UK - EU Governance

The Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee has undertaken an inquiry into UK-EU governance.

The UK-EU agreements establish complex new governance structures for the management of UK-EU relations and agreements post-Brexit. As these governance structures have begun to operate in practice, common issues and challenges for parliaments in the UK tasked with their scrutiny have emerged.

The role and place of the devolved governments and legislatures in these structures also remains unclear.

In its evidence to the House of Lords European Affairs Committee, the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee concluded on the basis of initial information it has been able to gather:

“The role of the devolved nations in UK-EU structures is not yet clear and the transparency of these structures and the intergovernmental work related to UK-EU relationships needs urgent improvement.”

The Committee is holding a short inquiry to build on its initial findings and test its conclusions with experts, stakeholders, parliaments, governments and institutions in Wales, the UK and the EU.

In particular the inquiry considered:

>>>> 

>>>The institutional architecture and governance of UK-EU agreements and how these have evolved in practice;

>>>The role of the devolved governments in the institutional architecture and governance of the UK-EU agreements themselves and UK intergovernmental arrangements in place to support their engagement;

>>>The role of UK legislatures and particularly devolved legislatures in the oversight of decision-making and scrutiny of the operation of the agreements;

>>>The role of civil society in the operation of the agreements and in particular the role of the Civil Society Forum and Domestic Advisory Groups under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement;

>>>The transparency and accountability of these new UK-EU governance structures.

<<<< 

Evidence gathering

The Committee held oral evidence sessions on the following dates:

The Committee received the below written evidence:

Paper by Charles Whitmore, 2021
Written Submission by Professor David Phinnemore and Dr Lisa Whitten, June 2023
Written Submission by Dr Elin Royles, June 2023
Written Submission by Professor Tobias Lock, June 2023
Written Submission by Tanja Buzek, July 2023
Written Submission by Cillian Lohan, July 2023
Written Submission by Charles Whitmore, August 2023
Written Submission by Loïg Chesnais-Girard, September 2023

The Committee visited Brussels on 5-7 September 2023. Following this visit, the Committee published a summary of the key themes arising from the visit.

The Committee laid its report (PDF 2,548KB) on 27 November 2023. The Senedd Commission responded to the report on 6 February 2024.The Welsh Government responded on 14 February 2024.