Brexit and Governance of the UK-EU Relationship

How were relations between the UK and the EU governed at the moment and what would happen after Brexit? This paper looked at the EU and UK proposals to date on how EU law would be observed and how disputes about this would be dealt with.

One of the key areas of negotiation between the UK and the EU was that of ‘governance’: agreement on how both the proposed Withdrawal Agreement and any future relationship would be managed between the two bodies.

Governance, as used by the EU and the UK in this context, was made up of three dimensions:

+ management and supervision of the agreements concluded;
+ dispute settlement, when one party disagreeed with the other party’s interpretation of their obligations under any of the agreements concluded;
+ enforcement of dispute settlement, or how to ensure that a party that was found to be in the wrong under the agreed dispute settlement process can be compelled to change its behaviour, and whether it can be penalised for having been in the wrong.

Two distinct ‘governance’ systems would need to be agreed as part of the Brexit negotiations.

+ Governance of the (temporary) Withdrawal Agreement
+ Governance of the future EU-UK relationship

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: Find more information in ESO on Brexit and the European Court of Justice http://www.europeansources.info/advSearchLink?keyword=Brexit%20after%20european%20court%20justice%20&searchOption=all

IfG: Blog, 25.10.18: A reasonable compromise on the European Court of Justice https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/reasonable-compromise-european-court-justice-brexit

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