European Council Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

European Council

Kevin Foster Excerpts
Tuesday 14th March 2017

(7 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait The Prime Minister
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We will invoke article 50 by the end of March, and a number of processes will happen in advance of that invocation. As I have said, I will come to the House when we have decided to make the notification.

Kevin Foster Portrait Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)
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Did the Prime Minister have the chance to take up with the European Commission and the Spanish Government their attitudes to the border with Gibraltar and to the separatists who claim that their countries could break away and then just rejoin the EU?

Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait The Prime Minister
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In our negotiations, the Spanish Government have been concerned and clear that it is not possible for a country to break away from a member of the European Union and immediately rejoin the European Union—the Barroso doctrine, which has been reaffirmed by the European Commission. As for Scotland, independence would not mean membership of the European Union. Scotland would remain outside the European Union.