LONDON: Demonstrators hold EU flags at the Parliament Square
during an anti-Brexit, pro-European Union march on March 25.—AFP
LONDON: There’s no divorce without paperwork.
Just over a year after Britons voted to leave the European
Union, the UK government on Thursday unveiled the first piece of legislation to
make it a reality a 62-page bill that opposition politicians are already vowing
to block.
The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill aims to convert some
12,000 EU laws and regulations into UK statute on the day Britain leaves the
bloc. That is scheduled to be in March 2019.
All those rules can then be kept, amended or scrapped by
Britain’s Parliament, fulfilling the promise of anti-EU campaigners to “take
back control” from Brussels to London.
The government says the bill will ensure continuity law on
the day after Brexit will be the same as on the day before.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said the legislation will allow
Britain to leave the EU with “maximum certainty, continuity and control.”
But opponents of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative
government fear the legislation gives officials powers to change laws without
sufficient scrutiny by lawmakers.
They worry the government could water down environmental
standards, employment regulations or other measures brought to Britain through EU
law since it joined the bloc in 1973.
Contentiously, the bill gives the government powers to fix
“deficiencies” in EU law by what’s known as statutory instruments, which can be
used without the parliamentary scrutiny usually needed to make or amend legislation.
Such powers are often referred to as “Henry VIII powers” after the Tudor king’s
bid to legislate by proclamation.
Andrew Blick, a politics lecturer at King’s College London,
said such executive powers are “a very sensitive subject” and likely to face
opposition.
“Henry VIII powers have been used before, but here they
apply to a very, very wide range of law,” Blick said.
The powers are temporary, expiring two years after Brexit
day. Even so, Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon branded the bill a
“naked power grab.”
Charles Clark, partner consultant at law firm Linklaters,
said the sheer number of legal changes needed 800 to 1,000 by the government’s
estimate meant Brexit could be “a mind-blowingly complicated logistical
exercise.” “My worry is we will be faced with death by statutory instrument,”
he said. “It’s going to be very expensive in terms of parliamentary and public
time, and business time.”
The bill also states that Britain will no longer enforce the
EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights after Brexit. Officials say similar
protections are offered by other measures including the European Convention on
Human Rights, which Britain will still adhere to.
The bill is not expected to face debate in Parliament until
the fall, and May’s minority government weakened after a battering in last
month’s general election faces a fight.
Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2017
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