THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
In the Spotlight
+++ Post-Brexit +++
The move by the British government is raising serious concerns on the reliability of the UK
Damaging trust: is there still a way for a negotiated Brexit? by Federico Fabbrini, Full Professor of EU Law at Dublin City University and Founding Director of the Brexit Institute, Dublin
T
he withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) on 31st January 2020 represented an historical moment – but it did not represent the end of Brexit. On the one hand, the Withdrawal Agreement, regulating the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU, established an 11-month stand-still transition period, which maintained the status quo: under the terms of the transition, the UK continues to participate in the EU internal market and customs union until 31st December 2020, despite being outside the EU’s institutions. On the other hand, immediately after the formal exit date, in February 2020, the UK and the EU started new negotiations to flesh out the terms of their future relations: through this process, the parties have endeavored to transform the Political Declaration attached to the Withdrawal Agreement into a new, legally binding partnership treaty defining the future terms of EU-UK cooperation in areas ranging from trade to security.
Negotiations disturbed by Covid-19 Nevertheless, the negotiations between the parties have proved extremely difficult. To begin with, the talks were disrupted by the explosion of the coronavirus – a new, severely acute respiratory syndrome, known also by its medical
acronym Covid-19, which resulted in the largest pandemic the world has experienced, at least since the 1918 Spanish influenza. As a result, for most of March and April 2020 negotiations between the EU and the UK were suspended and postponed. Moreover, the UK and the EU put forward very different visions on the type of partnership they were seeking to achieve, which effectively prevented them from making meaningful progress towards a deal. In particular, while the Commission drafted and published as early as of 18th March 2020 a full draft text of an Agreement on the New Partnership between the EU and the UK – with a common institutional framework and strong guarantees of a level playing field, – on 19th May 2020 the UK released draft texts of a suite of separate and interrelated international agreements which they wanted to negotiate, which however contrasted with the comprehensive approach sought by the EU and its intention to codify a commitment to a level playing field.
At odds on Ireland/Northern Ireland Most crucially, however, besides the divergence regarding their future relations, the UK and the EU have been at odds
Federico Fabbrini is Full Professor of European law at the School of Law & Government of the Dublin City University and the Principal of the Brexit Institute. He holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute and previously had academic positions in the Netherlands and Denmark. He regularly engages with EU institutions and national governments and is the author, among others of “Economic Governance in Europe” (Oxford University Press 2016) as well as the editor of “The Law & Politics of Brexit” (Oxford University Press 2017) and “The Law & Politics of Brexit. Volume2. The Withdrawal Agreement” Photo:© European Union, 2017; source: EP
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(Oxford University Press 2020).
