The Financial Settlement for the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Abstract

this paper introduces the financial arrangements related to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. It does so through a contextual analysis of the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement, of the priorities and of the path of the negotiations. After that, it focuses on the post-Brexit multi-annual financial framework and how resources will be allocated in order to ensure that the gap left in the EU finances by the UK leaving the block will be filled. There are, however, ongoing issues that need to be solved before the EU can move forward: the future contribution of the UK to the EU budget, that derives from previous commitments that the UK undertook, and the ambitions of the EU institutions in raising the bar of the financial capacity of the EU in the coming years. The post-Brexit negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework remind us of the challenges the EU will face in filling the financial gap resulting from the UK’s withdrawal and of the hard choices that must be made not only about the level of EU spending but also the content.