Read the full draft text of the principles and conditions here.
An overwhelming majority of the house (516 votes in favour, 133 against, with 50 abstentions) adopted a resolution officially laying down the European Parliament’s key principles and conditions for its approval of the UK’s withdrawal agreement.
The Parliament covered the following in relation to financial services:
- it opposes any future agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom that would contain piecemeal or sectorial provisions, including with respect to financial services, providing United Kingdom-based undertakings with preferential access to the internal market and/or the customs union;
- underlines that after its withdrawal the United Kingdom will fall under the third-country regime provided for in Union legislation;
- Warns that any bilateral arrangement between one or several remaining member states and the UK, in the areas of EU competence, which has not been agreed by the EU27, relating to issues included in the scope of the withdrawal agreement or impinging on the future relationship of the EU with the UK, would also be in contradiction with the Treaties. This would especially be the case for any bilateral agreement or regulatory or supervisory practice (or both) that would relate, for example, to any privileged access to the internal market for UK-based financial institutions at the expense of the EU’s regulatory framework;
- Calls for agreement to be reached as quickly as possible on the relocation of the EBA (which is currently based in London) and for the process of relocation to begin as soon as practicable.
