Damian Green: UK will pay for Europol membership after Brexit
2 min read
Britain will pay to retain membership of a key EU crime-fighting operation at least through a post-Brexit transition period, it was announced today.
First Secretary of State Damian Green said continued ties with Europol “will obviously involve paying for part of it”.
The Government has previously said it will stay part of the agency, which works to combat drug gangs, trafficking and terrorism, at least until March 2019 when the UK quits the bloc.
But today Mr Green went further, ahead of publication tomorrow of a Government partnership paper about security cooperation after Brexit.
“We want to continue cooperating as closely as we have perhaps even more closely with our European friends and neighbours on security, on counter-terrorism,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Politics.
“For example, one of the institutions that is very useful in that is Europol. So we will want to remain a member of Europol and that will obviously involve paying for part of it.”
The Department for Exiting the European Union has drawn up plans for a new legal pact to provide intelligence, law enforcement and criminal justice partnerships from 2019.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said effective cooperation would be “crucial” in order to keep Britons and Europeans safe.
He added: “We already have a deep level of collaboration with the EU on security matters and it is in both our interests to find ways to maintain it.
“We approach negotiations on our future special partnership with the EU as an opportunity to build on our existing achievements.
“A new security treaty with the EU would be underpinned by our shared principles, and should make sure our partnership has the agility to respond to the ever-changing threats we face.”
“Effective international cooperation is absolutely crucial for both the UK and the EU if we are to keep our citizens safe and bring criminals to justice.”
It suggests a change in tone is on the horizon, after Theresa May suggested security cooperation with the bloc was dependent on the EU granting the UK a good post-Brexit trade deal.
It comes after a bomb attack on a tube train at west London station Parsons Green injured 30 people.
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