Speaking to this website on Wednesday, Tannock admitted that the UK’s continued membership of some EU agencies could be “extremely problematic” in the future.
He was responding to UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech last week at the Munich Security Conference, in which she laid out her plan for a new UK-EU “deep and special partnership” to ensure continued post-Brexit security cooperation, and insisted the UK would continue to be a leader in military missions and intelligence, and that an agreement should be “effective from 2019”.
May said, “The partnership that we need to create is one that offers UK and EU way to combine our efforts to greatest effect where this is in our shared interest.”
Tannock, told The Parliament Magazine, “I give a cautious welcome to the speech from the Prime Minister as obviously Britain working together with the EU27 post-Brexit on security and defence matters within the CFSP and CSDP policy areas should not be remotely questioned by even the hardest of Brexiteers, as it is in all our common interests to do so given the common challenges we face in terms of international terrorism, cybercrime, climate change and hostile threats from foreign powers.”
He added, “However, I also note that the Prime Minister recognises that the current arrangements for third countries, which Britain will become, do not fully accommodate the scale and breadth of cooperation which she would wish for Britain with the EU in future.
“Furthermore, the self-imposed red lines, in particularly the exclusion of the European Court of Justice from having jurisdiction over British matters, makes participation in agencies like Europol, accessing instruments like the EAW and PNR, or accessing databases such as ECRIS or SIS, and the PRUM convention extremely problematic given the requirements of ECJ supervision and guaranteed continued regulatory alignment on data protection.”
Tannock went on, “The Prime Minister mentioned respecting the ECJ for the agencies if Britain participates but it is not clear whether this means being bound by its decision rather than our courts paying attention to them.
“Overall the speech makes valuable contributions by the offer of continued participation in the European development fund and future European defence fund post-Brexit. Lastly, the joint statement by the intelligence chiefs from Britain, France, and Germany should be a wakeup call to all the parties concerned but it is quite clear that the counter-terrorism group (CTG) operating in the Netherlands is a strictly inter-governmental affair outside of the EU’s remit and in practice should not be affected by even a Brexit in which there is no bilateral EU-UK defence and security deal.”
Tannock, a member of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said, “Of course Britain will remain an active member of Nato, in which there are many member states and it is hoped that Britain will promote EU-Nato cooperation from within that organisation rather than being a member of both.”
Meanwhile, Parliament's foreign affairs committee has backed a series of recommendations aimed at starving groups such as Isis of crucial funding.
They include improving the way member states monitor and share intelligence on suspicious financial transactions, virtual currencies and traditional informal money transfer systems. Banks would be obliged to monitor pre-paid debit cards.
The report also calls for the establishment of a common information platform where intelligence could be pooled, while places of worship and education, institutions, centres and charities in EU countries suspected of having links with terrorist group be forced to provide full details of all their sources of funding.
On this, Tannock said, “Isis is attempting to channel its money out of its diminishing territory in Syria and Iraq through oil exports and by buying businesses and assets of all kinds.
“More widely terrorist groups are involved in drugs, human trafficking, racketeering and child exploitation, while continually seeking new ways to move their money around.
“Security services, financial institutions and governments must continually anticipate and respond to developments. These proportionate proposals can play an important part in helping to sever the flow of money to terrorists.”