European Council

Alex Cunningham Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I said in my statement that for the remaining three years of this budget plan, we will be maintaining access to the Erasmus programme. For the future, it is one of the programmes that will be a part of the negotiations on our future relationship.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

My constituency is home to world class chemical companies that are anxious that the European REACH––registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals—standards, which regulate their products and guarantee their markets, will still apply after they leave the EU and beyond the implementation period. As trade talks start, will the Prime Minister do something to assure them that that will be the case?

[The Prime Minister]

We recognise the importance of this particular industry. Part of the trade talks and negotiations will be looking at the basis on which trade will carry on between the remaining European Union member states and the United Kingdom. That is the same in any trade agreement that a country enters into.