Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, pursuant to the Answer of 3 December 2018 to Question 194189 on EU External Relations, if he will set out the (a) agreements and (b) acquisitions which are affected by Article 129 of the EU Withdrawal Agreement and the requirement on the UK to refrain from acting in a manner deemed to be prejudicial to the Union's interests.

As article 129(1) of the Withdrawal Agreement makes clear, the UK will continue to be bound by obligations arising from our international agreements during the implementation period. We have agreed with the EU that they will notify treaty partners that the UK is to be treated as a Member State for the purposes of its international agreements with third countries during this period. The notification is intended to cover international agreements as defined in the Withdrawal Agreement - international agreements concluded by the Union, by Member States acting on its behalf, or by the Union and its Member States acting jointly.

In accordance with the principle of sincere cooperation, the UK has committed during the implementation period, to refrain from any action or initiative which is likely to be prejudicial to the Union’s interests. In particular in the framework of any international organisation, agency, conference or forum of which the UK is a party in its own right. This will not prevent the UK from negotiating, signing and ratifying new international agreements to come into force after the Implementation Period, even where the subject matter of those agreements would ordinarily be within the exclusive competence of the Union.