EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bowles of Berkhamsted (LD) [V]]

My Lords, first, I thank the team of the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, for engaging with me on the patent attorney queries in the TCA.

That enables me to move on to financial services and the Governor of the Bank of England’s warning that we should not pursue equivalence if it means following the EU’s rule of software counting as bank capital—an idea that I quashed in my EU days. Equivalence is defined as having legislation at least as stringent, which should mean that it is free from maximum harmonisation and allows higher standards of capital. Has that been acknowledged as a starting point? If not, then I agree that it is a problem.

Turning to competition, I welcome potential co-operation between competition authorities, and I hope that it happens. Findings show that consumer harm resulting from cartels and dominance often leads to follow-on actions for damages, so is there an appetite to re-enable UK and EU follow-on actions relying on one another’s findings?

On state aid, I welcome the exemption for compensating damage caused by natural disasters or exceptional non-economic occurrences, and I note that it would restrict some of what the EU did in the financial crisis. However, subsidies financed at supra-national level are excluded from the independent subsidy control bodies and co-operation between such bodies, which seems to cover all EU aid. Does that mean that EU aid is excluded from remedial measures under this agreement, leaving it to WTO measures, or can action be taken under this agreement’s remedial measures?

Finally, does the UK have freedom to create state-owned investment and development banks, such as in Germany? These were grandfathered under EU law but not allowed to be newly created on similar terms.