Easy to understand? EU cannot be serious

You’ve seen it on TV. You’ve heard about it on the radio. You’ve read about it in the papers.

And now, here it is. The Shropshire Star brings you the most topical, most talked-about, and most exciting document for ... for .... well, a long time, anyway.

Yes, in a WORLD EXCLUSIVE (we imagine, if only because nobody else in their right mind will think it’s worth printing in any detail) we bring you some extracts from the “Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community”.

And once you have whetted your appetite with these snippets, you will no doubt want to dip in to have a good read of all 585 pages because, remember, if the People’s Vote gets its way and Labour’s “all options are open” policy comes into play, then you could be voting on this.

Was “Leave” or “Remain” too complicated for you when you went to the polls on June 23, 2016?

Transition

Fear not, because the draft agreement is written in clear and unambiguous language. If you are a lawyer or EU official, that is.

If Article 59 floats your boat, enjoy: “Where a person has filed an application for a community plant variety right in accordance with Union law before the end of the transition period, that person shall have, for the purpose of filing an application for the same plant variety right in the United Kingdom, an ad hoc right of priority in the United Kingdom during a period of six months from the end of the transition period.

“The right of priority shall cause the date of priority of the application for the community plant variety right to be deemed to be the date of application for a plant variety right in the United Kingdom for the purpose of determining distinctness, novelty and entitlement to the right.”

What could be more straightforward than that?

But let’s get to some of the beef with, for example, rights of exit and entry (Article 14).

“Union citizens and United Kingdom nationals, their respective family members, and other persons, who reside in the territory of the host State in accordance with the conditions set out in this Title shall have the right to leave the host State and the right to enter it, as set out in Article 4(1) and the first sub-paragraph of Article 5(1) of Directive 2004/38/EC, with a valid passport or national identity card in the case of Union citizens and United Kingdom nationals, and with a valid passport in the case of their respective family members and other persons who are not Union citizens or United Kingdom nationals.”

I have an inkling that means if you’ve got a passport you can come and go.

Random

Now let’s have a lucky dip, and seriously, this is a random jump into a random part of the document.

“4. The Decisions and Recommendations of the Administrative Commission shall, for the purposes of this agreement, be understood as comprising the decisions and recommendations listed in Part I of Annex I.

“The Joint Committee shall amend Part I of Annex I to reflect any new decision or recommendation adopted by the Administrative Commission.

“To that end, as soon as possible after adoption of decisions and recommendations of the Administrative Commission, the Union shall inform the United Kingdom thereof within the Joint Committee.

“Such amendments shall be made by the Joint Committee on a proposal of the Union or the United Kingdom.”

As for the tricky Northern Ireland question, that’s covered.

Here’s just a part: “Having regard to Northern Ireland’s integral place in the United Kingdom’s internal market, the Union and the United Kingdom shall use their best endeavours to facilitate, in accordance with applicable legislation and taking into account their respective regulatory regimes as well as their implementation, the trade between the part of the territory of the United Kingdom to which Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 applies by virtue of Article 6(2) and other parts of the territory of the United Kingdom.

“The Joint Committee shall keep under constant review the application of this paragraph and adopt appropriate recommendations with a view to avoiding, to the extent possible, controls at the ports and airports of Northern Ireland.”

You can read the draft agreement online. Make sure you do, every page.

Because if there is a referendum on Theresa May’s Brexit deal, you don’t want them to be able to say afterwards: “They didn’t really understand what they were voting on.”