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Right, hectic day giving me a break so I can do a short thread on this morning's piece on Brexit and JHA. First, the plug: read it below 
https://cer.eu/insights/brexit-and-police-and-judicial-co-operation-too-little-too-late
https://cer.eu/insights/brexit-and-police-and-judicial-co-operation-too-little-too-late
Despite what it may seem, @MichelBarnier and
@DavidGHFrost are not only negotiating trade stuff. EU-UK future relationship is much more than fish and level playing fields. [There is a song to be written there somewhere]. One crucial but oft-forgotten thing?
& 
co-operation 2/
@DavidGHFrost are not only negotiating trade stuff. EU-UK future relationship is much more than fish and level playing fields. [There is a song to be written there somewhere]. One crucial but oft-forgotten thing?
& co-operation 2/
There are several reasons why not that many people talk about post-Brexit police and security co-operation (JHA for the nerds). It is not particularly sexy. It's techy. But that's also true of trade. And negotiators have kept awfully quiet.
Most importantly, UK and EU positions have moved very little since 2016. The only thing which is different is the UK's reluctant commitment to stay in the ECHR. Other than that, red lines have not shifted. 
wants bespoke agreement but no ECJ. 
wants no better in than out 4/
wants bespoke agreement but no ECJ. wants no better in than out 4/
Both parties want an agreement on three priority areas: Europol and Eurojust; extradition; and databases. My assessment in 2018 was that the list went from easier (Europol) to tricky (databases). I still stand by it. https://cer.eu/publications/archive/report/2018/plugging-british-completing-circuit
The big question now is whether UK/EU will manage to seal a deal in time to avoid a cliff edge on January 1st. 6/
The scenarios are:
A deal agreed by mid-November and fast-tracked through the European Parliament by January 1st. We can all relax.
A deal agreed by mid-November but not ratified by January 1st. We panic a bit.
No deal is agreed. We panic a lot.
A deal agreed by mid-November and fast-tracked through the European Parliament by January 1st. We can all relax. A deal agreed by mid-November but not ratified by January 1st. We panic a bit. No deal is agreed. We panic a lot.
My hunch is that a lot will depend on whether or not the parties manage to seal a trade deal. If you believe the latest reports, we should probably be panicking a lot then. Only that...not really 8/
Why? Because the Withdrawal Agreement covers cases when investigations and prosecutions are ongoing, so we will not be greeting the New Year with a run-away convict hanging around our (socially distanced) "Welcome 2021!" party. But also...9/
... bc there are many great legal minds working out solutions to cover new cases as we tweet. One idea is to extend the extradition provisions of the WA until a new treaty is in place. For Europol, the idea is to use a obscure clause allowing for extensions of data sharing 10/
The big, big problem will be data protection. This is true not only for police and judicial co-operation but also for trade. Will there be an adequacy decision? It might as well. Will it last for a long time? I don't think so. I end with a cliff-hanger as Zoom calls (literally) /
