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PIMFA WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN | 10 May 2021 Dear Nigel,
Welcome to the PIMFA Bulletin; grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to read this week's latest industry news impacting you and your firm.
The Latest on Brexit
European Commission rejects the UK’s application to join the Lugano Convention The European Commission has rejected the UK’s application to join the Lugano Convention. In a non-binding recommendation, the Commission said that the EU should block the UK’s accession to the Lugano Convention, which sets out which country’s courts may hear cross-border disputes and which decisions can be enforced. The UK stopped being part of Lugano after the end of the Brexit transition period but applied to re-join as an independent member in April 2020. The Commission says that the Lugano Convention represents an essential feature of a common area of justice and is a flanking measure for the EU’s economic relations with the EFTA/EEA countries.
The UK is, since 1 January 2021, a third country with an ordinary Free Trade Agreement facilitating trade but not including any fundamental freedoms and policies of the internal market. The Commission says that the Convention is, in principle, open to accession by any other State upon invitation but it is not the appropriate general framework for judicial