What has the UK Government said about its strategy for the Brexit
negotiations? The Prime Minister and the Brexit Secretary have
set out their views in speeches and white papers, and now the EU
institutions have set out theirs. They often coincide, but there
are areas that could be difficult to resolve. This paper
summarises the starting points of the UK and the EU institutions
at the beginning of the Article 50 process.
UK aims for Brexit
In speeches in January, a White Paper in February 2017 and the
Article 50 letter of notice, the UK Prime Minister and
Secretary of State for Exiting the EU set out their aims for
the Brexit negotiations and for the UK’s future relations with
the EU after it has left. The UK would be global in all its
endeavours, would cooperate with its EU neighbours and would
like as frictionless a departure and transition as possible.
EU guidelines
The European Parliament and European Council have published
draft negotiating guidelines setting out what they want the
negotiations to be about and their views on the UK’s future
relationship with the EU – which must not be more beneficial
outside the EU than in it. The Commission negotiator has also
made clear his expectations for the process and its outcome.
Some areas of agreement and potential
disagreement
Their views coincide with the UK’s in many respects – the need
for legal certainty and for continuing security cooperation,
the importance of Northern Ireland, the principle of sincere
cooperation as the basis for negotiations, for example.But
there are also some areas of potential disagreement.
One or more agreements?
One is whether the withdrawal agreement and an ambitious free
trade agreement should be negotiated alongside each other,
which is what the UK wants. The European Council draft
guidelines state that an only “an overall understanding on the
framework for the future relationship” could be identified
during the negotiations. The “agreement on a future
relationship between the Union and the United Kingdom as such
can only be concluded once the United Kingdom has become a
third country”. The EP draft resolution also insists that
the relationship agreement be concluded with the UK as a third
state after Brexit.
Is no deal better than a bad deal?
One noteworthy difference between the Prime Minister’s January
speech, the February White Paper and the Article 50 notice
letter is that there is no mention in the notice letter of the
earlier readiness to walk away from the EU with no agreement if
the outcome of the negotiations is unsatisfactory. The Article
50 letter emphasises the need to avoid a no-deal scenario.
The UK, Spain and Gibraltar: could Spain block
agreement?
A proposed European Council principle that might cause concern
is the requirement for agreement between the UK and Spain
before any EU-UK agreement can apply to Gibraltar.
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