It may well be the case that the UK govt tactic of talking to Member States about this, instead of the EU, has a political motive - ie avoiding the appearance of renegotiating the Brexit deal as such. But there's also an ironic legal angle. 1/
2/ If the issue is seen as an aspect of market access for services - which is how the *UK govt* framed it during the Brexit deal talks - then it's an EU exclusive competence. That means individual Member States can't negotiate with non-EU countries without EU authorisation.
3/ If the issue is seen as an aspect of visa policy - which is how the *EU* framed it during negotiations - then it's not an EU exclusive competence, because EU law leaves it to Member States whether to require a visa for paid activities during a short-term stay.
4/ The EU was, however, willing to negotiate a declaration that a visa would not be required for certain categories of paid activities, such as ad hoc performances by artists (assumed to include musicians). UK said that would violate its 'red line' opposition to free movement.
5/ It's not convincing to argue that short term paid activity for only certain categories of people violated this 'red line' - especially when the UK sought a similar result by other means, and wanted reciprocal rights for UK citizens going to the EU.
6/ The 'red line' argument becomes even sillier when UK seeks the same result by bilateral talks - moreover reversing its prior position that this was a services issue.

Convoluted negotiating tactics, which frustrate/complicate UK objectives for cosmetic reasons, are tiresome.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Steve Peers

Steve Peers Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @StevePeers

18 Feb
Latest EU infringement proceedings - includes possible return to EU court to request fines re Polish forest protection and Hungarian law on NGOs; also includes environmental law, racism hate speech law, European Arrest Warrant

ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…
Some highlights from the infringement proceedings: details of the Commission allegations about failure to apply EU criminal law on racism and xenophobia, which includes Holocaust denial ImageImage
The Commission alleges that three Member States have tried to shelter their own citizens from the application of European Arrest Warrants Image
Read 10 tweets
16 Feb
A quick explanation of this latest development re the pending cases on whether UK citizens have lost EU citizenship, then a bonus prize at the end.
Last year three cases (Shindler, Silver and Price) were brought directly against the EU Council for allegedly wrongly concluding the withdrawal agreement, on the grounds that it arguably "deprived" UK citizens of EU citizenship.
Challenges brought by individuals against EU institutions go to the EU General Court. Its judgments can be appealed to the CJEU.

Subsequently French courts asked the CJEU similar questions about UK citizens and EU citizenship.
Read 6 tweets
11 Feb
CJEU continuing its jurisdiction over UK cases pending at the end of the transition period - today's AG opinion on judicial review of food standards decisions (reference from the Supreme Court): curia.europa.eu/juris/document…
Another CJEU AG opinion today in a pending UK case - this one a fast-tracked case from Westminster magistrate's court on whether Bulgarian standards for issuing European Arrest Warrants ensure judicial independence - curia.europa.eu/juris/document…
CJEU, asylum law

New AG opinion on when asylum seekers fleeing civil war (in Afghanistan, in this case) qualify for subsidiary protection - curia.europa.eu/juris/document…
Read 4 tweets
10 Feb
EU Commission report on return and readmission policy - the usual exhortations to agree to its proposed revision of the returns directive, negotiate more readmission treaties etc - ec.europa.eu/transparency/r…
On the same issue - new CJEU AG opinion on the EU returns directive - when does an entry ban against a non-EU citizen fall outside the scope of EU law? curia.europa.eu/juris/document…
A second CJEU AG opinion on expulsion today, this time of EU citizens - curia.europa.eu/juris/document…
Can an EU citizen expelled for not meeting criteria to stay simply come back to the expelling State?
Read 6 tweets
9 Feb
A quick thread on where we stand with EU conclusion of the Brexit deal, based on internal unpublished Council documents.
Tomorrow morning Member States' representatives meet to agree the text on the decision to conclude the treaty. They will be revising the Commission proposal on this.
There's also a batch of agreed statements about how the Brexit deal will be implemented on the EU side.
Read 13 tweets
29 Jan
Incidentally the links to the new law no longer work - does anyone know if this is just a technical glitch or whether there might be a change to the text planned? @tconnellyRTE
Quick point about the vanished vaccine export law. It included a list of vaccine producers. If the law reappears with that list, the vaccine producers might have standing to sue the EU Commission directly before the EU General Court, and request interim measures immediately.
This doesn't necessarily mean that the companies would *win* either interim measures or the main action. Just that a legal challenge might be brought.

Any legal challenge would be about trade law, not contract law.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!