Tribune. It took three and a half years and a deep British political crisis to formalize the UK’s exit from the European Union. But January 31 only marks the political exit from the United Kingdom: now it no longer participates in European decisions. It remains to operate the legal exit, which will not be fully effective until after the unraveling of the some 750 agreements that unite the country to the European bloc. The Withdrawal Agreement only guarantees the rights of citizens, peace in Ireland and the settlement of financial commitments.
For the rest, just as we don't stop planes in mid-flight, we cannot be content with a legal vacuum. Beyond the issue of maximum economic cost with a return of border controls and customs duties negotiated at the World Trade Organization (WTO), it is the daily life of the British and many Europeans who would be upset by the uncertainty of a blank page in multiple areas (data transfers, energy, transport, security, fishing, etc.).
Guaranteeing equal competition
The task of the negotiators is colossal and unworkable in the eleven-month transition period that Boris Johnson intends to meet by the end of 2020. The question of extending the transition will soon return to the table. In the meantime, European negotiators are devising strategies for prioritizing and sequencing, while keeping a link between the different chapters. But for the time being, we must first identify the most decisive issue of this negotiation: the need to guarantee conditions of equal competition between the United Kingdom and the European Union (the famous level playing field, essential condition for maintaining open trade).
Of course, Europeans intend to maintain the closest possible bilateral relationship, including to maintain strong cooperation in the fields of security and defense. But there is a much more existential issue for the 27: preserving the integrity of the "regulatory ecosystem" on which the single market is based. During the withdrawal negotiations, the Europeans managed to "constitutionalize" the indivisibility of the four freedoms of movement (people, goods, services and capital). Now, it is a question of arguing that neither the social and environmental rules nor those concerning the limitation of State aid can be dissociated and considered as optional without creating regulatory dumping and distortion of competition.
