The Institutional Dimension of the EU-UK Relationship After Brexit

Abstract

In the absence of agreed institutional arrangements for the post-Brexit EU-UK relationship the present contribution explores whether guidance can be found for the institutional dimension of their future relationship in a number of other documents and principles. We will, first of all, examine the institutional framework laid down in the ‘Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, done at Brussels and London on 24 January 2020’, and its implementation. Second, we will uncover some aspects of the future institutional relationship based on the ‘Political Declaration setting out the framework for the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom’ of 17 October 2019, which was adopted by the EU and the UK in parallel with the Withdrawal Agreement. Third, we will explore how the Commission sees that relationship based on its March 2020 draft text. Fourth, we will discuss at a meta level the principles which will in any event govern the institutional side of the future relationship, in particular the principle of good faith. Some brief concluding remarks round up. Brexit, Institutional Framework, European Union, United Kingdom, Withdrawal Agreement, Political Declaration