Brexit briefing: Barnier talks tough on security

The challenges facing Britain on justice and home affairs have been comprehensively set out in a paper by Camino Mortera-Martinez, of the Centre for European Reform think-tank. She says that there are three broad areas where Britain wants things to stay the same. These are: access to EU law enforcement databases, EU measures to support practical law enforcement co-operation such as the European Arrest Warrant, and co-operation through EU agencies such as Europol and Eurojust.

However, Ms Mortera-Martinez says the EU’s main guiding principle for the Brexit negotiations with the UK is “no better out than in” — and this is why the UK will fall short of securing the bespoke arrangement it seeks.  

On extradition, she says the UK is unlikely to retain the European Arrest Warrant, which is open only to EU countries.

The point is today emphasised by Mr Barnier, who says the UK cannot retain the EAW because it isn’t ready to accept free movement, the ECJ and the charter of fundamental rights. However, he accepts there could be a “streamlining” of some extradition procedures post-Brexit.

On data sharing, Ms Camino-Martinez says that Britain is unlikely to retain direct access to Schengen’s main law enforcement database, the Schengen Information System. Instead, “the UK could ask Europol or a friendly EU or Schengen country to run searches on its behalf, as the US and Canada do”.

As for Europol, she says that Britain should be able to have a good partnership with the body, as the US does. But Britain will not have direct access to Europol’s databases. “Denmark, an EU country which left Europol in 2015, managed to negotiate a partnership deal with the EU, but can no longer access the agency’s databases directly.”