Britain is issuing a new appeal to Brussels to end the delay in granting access to EU scientific research as agreed in the post-Brexit trade deal. Britain's Europe Minister Leo Docherty is to say that in continuing to deny access to research programmes such as Horizon, the EU is failing to fulfil its side of the agreement.
In an address to British and European parliamentarians at Westminster, he is due to emphasise that both sides will profit from co-operating on shared issues such as climate change, global health and energy security. According to advance extracts of his address Docherty will say: “The UK’s participation would be a clear win-win for the UK and the EU, but the UK cannot wait much longer; the EU’s approach is causing intolerable uncertainty for our research and business communities.”
Despite differences over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol dominating the recent dialogue between London and Brussels, his comments underline the tension that remains on other issues too.
In his speech, Mr Docherty will highlight how the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the importance of the two sides working together. “A clear lesson from the last nine months has been that despite the challenges in our relationship, the UK and EU are effective allies where it matters most. The Ukrainians have stood firm against Vladimir Putin, in part because of the actions of our Government and those across the EU. That action has been stronger because it has been coordinated between us."
He will add: “I urge our European friends to continue to work with us in providing more weapons, imposing more sanctions, and backing Ukraine to push Russian forces out.”
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