Brexit: red lines and starting principles

What has the United Kingdom 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 in April 2017.

UK aims for Brexit
In speeches in January 2017, 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 European Commission negotiator has also made clear his expectations for the process and its outcome.

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.

• Primary Source

ESO: In Focus: Brexit - The United Kingdom and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union/

ESO: Background information: Guide to the Brexit Negotiations [EU Law Analysis Blog by Steve Peers, April 2017] http://www.europeansources.info/record/guide-to-the-brexit-negotiations/

Politico, 25.04.17: Inside the EU’s Brexit sherpas meeting www.politico.eu/blogs/playbook-plus/2017/04/inside-the-eu-brexit-sherpas-meeting/

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