Finding a Sensible Brexit

For many who campaigned for Remain, the UK government’s offer agreed with the EU on the 9 December 2017 to ‘maintain full alignment’ with those EU single market and customs rules that would avoid a hard border in Ireland re-opened the prospect of a ‘soft’ Brexit. The logic was that if Britain cannot remain in the EU, then the next best economic deal was to negotiate a way to remain inside the EU’s single market and customs union.

In this commentary feature the author argued that while this might be true from an economic perspective. But a soft Brexit would be a bad political outcome.

Instead, a ‘sensible’ Brexit, which retained the best possible levels of access to the EU’s single market but secured the return of sovereign rights, was the way forward.

Chatham House: Video, 18.12.17: Inside the Brexit Negotiations https://www.chathamhouse.org/event/inside-brexit-negotiations

https://www.chathamhouse.org/research/regions/europe/UK/after-brexit-britain-future https://www.chathamhouse.org/research/regions/europe/UK/after-brexit-britain-future

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

Rand Corporation: Report, December 2017: After Brexit: Alternate forms of Brexit and their implications for the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States http://www.europeansources.info/record/after-brexit-alternate-forms-of-brexit-and-their-implications-for-the-united-kingdom-the-european-union-and-the-united-states/

---