he process of divesting London of some of the key European institutions that have been based here for years is quickening. Bids from countries seeking to be the new home of the European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority when they relocate have to be in by midnight tonight. The Dutch, who have recently discovered the joy of viral videos after the success of their spoof welcome to President Trump, have made a helpful little film about how Amsterdam is really very like London (glamorous royals, fish and chips). But at least six other countries would also like the chance of hosting the EMA, the body that regulates all human and animal medicines across the EU, advises the European commission on licensing, and monitors safety. Losing it is not a catastrophe; but it is another link out of the chain that connects British and continental Europe’s science and medicine. Nor is it an automatic consequence of leaving the EU. But membership of the EMA, like membership of other agencies including Euratom, which regulates aspects of nuclear safety, means recognising the European court of justice. And for reasons that many lawyers, academics and ordinary voters struggle to understand, leaving the jurisdiction of the ECJ has become one of the defining purposes of leaving the EU.Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you Read more [...]
Yet there has been almost no public conversation about what was perceived to be wrong with the ECJ; nor has there been any consideration of the process of accommodation that is being negotiated with it by other countries which – like Germany – have a constitutional court that is as fiercely protective of the basic law that underpins their constitution as parliament and the supreme court are of the authority of Magna Carta and the bill of rights in Britain; nor how, without it, any future trading relationship between the UK and the EU27 will be adjudicated. [...]
Mrs May appears to have been influenced by the public law QC Marina Wheeler, who in February last year wrote that the ECJ had become overmighty and was set to become more powerful still. Other lawyers were sceptical of her case, but – perhaps because she is married to Boris Johnson – her article appears to have had a decisive influence. As a result, which may have been foreseen, it is impossible for the UK to retain membership of the single market or the customs union, or to host EU agencies. It has become the dictator of the nature of the Brexit deal.
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