The Parliamentary Partnership Assembly’s first meeting: what did we learn?

Summary:

The UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (PPA) is the inter-parliamentary body which is provided by the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). The TCA gives the PPA two roles, as:

• ‘A forum to exchange views on the [UK-EU] partnership’;
• an interlocutor for, and scrutineer of, the UK-EU Partnership Council (the TCA’s top decision-making body).

The PPA met for the first time on 12-13 May 2022 with both sets of pressures on UK-EU relations running high – those pushing for a more constructive relationship, on the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and those pushing for a more conflictual one, over the Northern Ireland Protocol. With the latter having the potential to lead ultimately to the suspension of parts of the TCA, the first question at the first joint press conference held by the PPA’s joint Chairs was whether the PPA’s first meeting would be its last. After one meeting, it is too soon for a firm view of the extent to which the PPA might help move the UK-EU relationship in the more constructive direction.

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