At the Palace of Westminster In Committee Room 10 on 12th February 2020 the British Italian Conservative have organised an event aimed to try to put some lights in to what can happen with the future legislations between EU and UK.
The conference was chaired by Maurizio Bragagni and Simon Blagden (BIC Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively) at the kind invitation of Alberto Costa MP (BIC Honorary President), he proposed the Amendment to the Brexit Deal that leaded to his forced resignation from a Government position, the amendment however was later positively voted by the government. Alberto said: “the rights of EU citizens and UK citizens will be guaranteed perpetually underpinned by international law, my job will be to monitor the technicalities of how the Government will set those guaranties in laws”
The special guest was Simon Davis, President of the Law Society England and Wales, who talked about how the profession was organising to cope with the aftermath of Brexit and what it might mean for the legal profession mentioning that “What’s happens next depends on a great extent on you and those like you outside this room, for you I mean Politicians Lawyers Business Representatives and Activists”.
Followed by Maria Memoli, Law Society Council Member, ” “This is a very tense time for the citizen, businesses and member states and is worried about the divergence of views between UK and EU. Time is short. The transition finishes at the end of the year. In large parts of the economy, people rely on advice and support of solicitors”.
She was followed by Alessandro Belluzzo, President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce, who talked about the impact of Brexit and the hope that future negotiations would allow more rather than less opportunities for UK industries for trade, and then Gerardo Aprovitolo, a partner in the London law firm of ADL Solicitors, who talked about the problems facing European SMEs post-Brexit, the various free trade models that had been proposed, and how he hoped negotiations might be concluded in the best possible way to allow companies based either in the UK or Europe to continue to trade with its partners after Brexit. He was followed by Angela McFarlane, Market Development Director and Chair of Brexit Task Force, IQVIA, who gave a very interesting talk about how the UK leads the world in clinical trials and the importance of this industry, how the European Medicines Agency had been removed from the UK to the Netherlands over Brexit (and the problems that had ensued), and how the industry in the UK might remain able to continue to provide services (which mainly relied on free flow of data) within the EU. Sara Alessandrini, a criminal defence solicitor and partner at O’Keeffe Solicitors, then talked about how changes to do with the European Arrest Warrant had already occurred, and the challenges that lay ahead to continue to provide security with cross-border co-operation on law enforcement. The last speaker, Professor Mark Watson-Gandy, a Barrister at Three Stone Chambers, talked about insolvency laws and how these might change and evolve outside the EU. There was then a short question and answer section, followed by closing remarks by Maurizio Bragagni. Many speakers commented on the particular needs for continuation of trade in services with the EU, noting that most public interest seemed to be in trade in goods, which have much less influence on our balance of trade with the EU, and the hope that the British Government would recognise how important the service sector was to the UK economy.
Ideated and organised by Christian Vinante Giovannini, Gerardo Aprovitolo, Maria Memoli and Eleonara Gorla the event was extremely well-attended, with over one hundred guests, with a very relaxed atmosphere despite the high calibre of both speakers and invitees.
