Brexit and Biodiversity Breaking up is hard to do? Greg Smith CIEEM EU Exit Manager, Natural England East Anglian Planning and Biodiversity Seminar 24 November 2017
www.gov.uk/natural-england
Purpose of session
• Understanding the main environmental implications of Brexit • Understanding the process of Brexit • Gove’s vision of a “green Brexit” • Some space to share intel, insights, worries and ideas
Content • Spoiler alert • Key environmental issues • Updates on: o EU Withdrawal Bill o Article 50 negotiations and why they matter for the natural environment • Review of Defra workstreams: o Future Farming and Countryside o Marine Environment and Fisheries o Environmental Regs and Strategy o Day 1 Readiness • Q&A
Ground rules Spoiler Alert • Respect – don’t assume you know what the person next to you voted or how they are affected by Brexit • Certainty – “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” • Sorry – I won’t tell you anything you don’t already know (and if I do it was a mistake!)
What could it mean for the natural environment?
1. European habitats and species – terrestrial and marine – purpose, policy and regulation
What could it mean for the natural environment?
2. EU Funding • • • • •
Agri-environment Life+ ERDF/ESIF Interreg Leader
What could it mean for the natural environment?
3. Agriculture & Fisheries • Common Agricultural Policy • Common Fisheries Policy
What could it mean for the natural environment?
4. Biodiversity-Underpinning Wider environment measures covering: • Water • Floods • Nitrates • Invasive non-natives • Air • Pesticides • Chemicals • Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
What could it mean for the natural environment?
5. Decisionmaking • Sustainable development principles • Environmental Impact Assessment • Strategic Environmental Assessment • Environmental Information Regs
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill
• aka ‘Great Repeal Bill’ • White Paper published - 30 March 2017 • Bill published - 13 July 2017 • Repeals European Communities Act 1972 (undoing supremacy of EU law and of the European Court of Justice)
• Retained EU law…
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill
Creates new class of ‘retained EU law’ in the UK legal system: – existing EU law which has direct effect – existing UK laws which implement EU laws – all rights and obligations in EU treaties – ECJ caselaw applying at the point of exit
European Union (Withdrawal Bill)
• Delegated powers enable the Government to make secondary legislation for two main purposes: – ‘correcting’ EU derived law so that it functions effectively after Brexit, and – implementing the withdrawal agreement. • Such ‘Henry VIII’ powers (ie executive action to amend primary legislation) are potentially wide-ranging and controversial. • Key environmental issues: o The governance gap o SD principles in Lisbon Treaty
Article 50
• Two years from 29 March 2017 • To agree the terms of exit “having regard to” future relationships • EU require substantive progress on: the bill, the rights of EU citizens in the UK and on the NI border before discussing future relations
Article 50
Relevant to the natural environment because: o Environmental convergence conditions in future trade deal? o Terms of any transition period? o Participation in EU processes and institutions? o Do you like your Brexits hard or soft?
…and so to Defra
The Defra Programme
Environmental Regulation
Marine and Fisheries
Defra SRO (Claire Moriarty)
Future Farming and Countryside
Legislate, Negotiate, Finance
Day 1 Readiness = Millennium Bug
A Green Brexit?
Who said that? Was it George Monbiot or Michael Gove? • “We must maintain and enhance the natural world around us or find ourselves facing disaster” • “Environmental degradation is a threat to future prosperity and security” • “I have no intention of weakening the environmental protections that we have put in place while in the European Union” • “There is a growing appetite for a new system of agricultural support which puts environmental protection and enhancement first”. • “Michael Gove is the intellectual ballast in the relationship (with Boris Johnson)”
Further Reading
Any questions/clarifications?
www.gov.uk/natural-england