Press release on Brexit White Paper

MIKE HEDGES AM WELCOMES  ANNOUNCEMENT OF WHITE PAPER FOCUSING ON SECURING WALES’ FUTURE: WALES’ POST-REFERENDUM PLAN

Welsh Labour’s First Minister Carwyn Jones has published a comprehensive, credible plan for Wales as the UK moves towards negotiations on leaving the European Union.

Mike Hedges AM said… ‘ I welcome this white paper which provides a framework for the challenge of ensuring that Wales gets the best deal from Brexit. We need to respect the result, but that does not mean abandoning Wales to a bleak hard Brexit future. We need to fight hard for a Brexit that safeguards access to markets and ensures that Wales will be an attractive place to invest and to visit to learn at our prestigious Universities. ‘

North Wales South East Wales
The White Paper is not just a shopping list of demands from Wales, but a pragmatic starting point for negotiations that can deliver for all parts of the United Kingdom.

The paper, developed jointly by the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru, balances concerns over immigration with the economic reality that makes participation in the single market central to Wales’ future prosperity.

The paper sets out 6 key areas:

• The importance of continued participation in the Single Market to support businesses, and secure jobs and the future prosperity of Wales.
• A balanced approach to immigration linking migration to jobs and good properly-enforced employment practice which protects all workers whatever their country of origin.
• On finance and investment, the need for the UK Government to make good on promises made during the referendum campaign that Wales would not lose funding as a result of the UK leaving the EU.
• A fundamentally different constitutional relationship between the devolved governments and the UK Government – based on mutual respect, reaching agreement through consent
• Maintaining the social and environmental protections and values that we prize in Wales, in particular workers’ rights, once these are no longer guaranteed through the UK’s membership of the EU.
• Proper consideration of transitional arrangements to ensure the UK does not fall off a cliff edge in its economic and wider relationship with the EU if longer-term arrangements have not been agreed at the point of exit.

The White Paper and further details can be found here.