Yahoo Finance May warns EU plans ‘put at risk’ post-Brexit security cooperation
EU plans to lock Britain out of security databases after Brexit will make catching criminals and terrorists more difficult, Theresa May has warned her continental counterparts.
The prime minister made the prediction during an address to leaders of the other 27 EU member states over dinner after the first day of the European Council summit in Brussels.
She told them the UK was committed to maintaining the same level of security cooperation after Brexit but said “our ability to do so is being put at risk.”
That’s a reference to the EU’s insistence that Britain will become a third country for security purposes from next March.
EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said last month that means the UK will not be able to access EU security databases because they will not be bound by safeguards such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
MORE: Theresa May ‘confident’ of getting Brexit deal despite EU concerns over Cabinet split
The Schengen Information System, which helps track the movements of criminals and terrorists, as well as missing people or stolen vehicles, is among those the UK will lose access to.
Cooperation will instead be based on bilateral exchanges between the UK and EU authorities.
That would make the process of information sharing slower and more difficult, May told EU leaders.
She said: “We would no longer be able to share real time alerts for wanted persons including serious criminals.
“We would be able to respond less swiftly to alerts for missing people from either side of the channel and reunite them with our loved-ones.
“Our collective ability to map terrorist networks and bring those responsible to justice would be reduced.
“That is not what I want and I do not what believe it is what you want either.”
May urged the other 27 leaders to consider “what is in the best interests of the safety of your citizens” when they meet to discuss Brexit negotiations on Friday morning.
Barnier anticipated such criticism when he set out the EU’s position in a speech in Vienna last month.
MORE: Barnier calls for ‘realism’ from UK over post-Brexit security
He said: “They try to blame us for the consequences of their choice…But we have, I have, to speak the truth…We need more realism about what is and what is not possible.”
May was set to avoid the most difficult outstanding issue in negotiations – how to avoid a hard border in Ireland at all costs.
Although the prime minister met her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar to discuss the issue before the dinner.
Varadkar said he wanted to have made “substantial progress” on the issue by this summit.
EU leaders will instead tomorrow “express concern” at the lack of progress towards finding an Irish border backstop.
The mood was likely to be lifted somewhat however when May presented an England shirt to Belgian prime minister Charles Michel, who had earlier presented her with a Belgium shirt.
