How should the EU ‘get Brexit done’? by Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska
The EU and the UK might have only 11 months to conclude negotiations on their future partnership. The EU would find it easier to achieve its objectives if its negotiating structures were similar to those for the Article 50 talks. ‘Get Brexit done’ is the mantra of Boris Johnson’s election campaign. If he secures a parliamentary majority in the December election, the UK will probably leave the EU by January 31st – the Brexit deadline set by European leaders. But contrary to Johnson’s claims, leaving the EU will not be the end of the Brexit story. The UK will have to reach agreement with the EU on their future relationship, or face another cliffedge when the transition period comes to an end on December 31st 2020. According to the withdrawal agreement, that is the deadline, unless the EU and the UK agree by July 2020 to extend it (for up to one or two years). Johnson has ruled out any extension: he argues that the 11-month ‘transition period’ is sufficient to agree on a future partnership with the EU. The EU thinks that this is a tall order, but has started establishing new negotiating structures in preparation for opening negotiations on the future relationship as soon as possible. The EU would be best placed for the new talks if it preserved the greatest possible continuity in staffing and structures with the Article 50 negotiations.
The legal basis for the next phase of negotiations will be Articles 207 and 218 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), which set out the procedures for opening, conducting and finalising negotiations with third countries. As a first step, the European Commission will formally recommend that the Council authorises the opening of talks with the UK and signs off the EU negotiator’s mandate. The Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has decided to keep Michel Barnier as the EU’s chief negotiator for the second phase of the talks. If the withdrawal agreement is ratified, Barnier’s ‘Taskforce for relations with the UK’ will shift its focus to the implementation of the withdrawal agreement: preparing the EU’s position for meetings of the joint committee (which oversees the application of the agreement and discusses any disputes on its interpretation); negotiating the future relationship; and ensuring that the EU is prepared in case no agreement on the future relationship is reached by the end of the transition period. Barnier is recruiting extra staff to deal with these daunting tasks.