Europe after Brexit: a proposal for a new Continental Partnership

• Main Authors: Pisani-Ferry, Jean, Röttgen, Norbert, Sapir, André, Tucker, Paul, Wolff, Guntram B
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science 2016
• Subjects: JC Political theory; JN Political institutions (Europe); JN101 Great Britain; JZ International relations; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/72989/; http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/72989/1/blogs.lse.ac.uk-Europe%20after%20Brexit%20a%20proposal%20for%20a%20new%20Continental%20Partnership.pdf; http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/

After the British decision to leave the EU, Europe’s trajectory – even its destiny – is again up for discussion. In an increasingly volatile world, neither the EU nor the UK have an interest in a divorce that diminishes their influence as the balance of economic power shifts away from the North-Atlantic world. In this article, exclusive to LSE Brexit in English, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Norbert Röttgen, André Sapir, Paul Tucker and Guntram B Wolff propose a new form of collaboration – a continental partnership. The UK will want to have some control over labour mobility, as well as leaving behind the EU’s supranational decision-making. The proposed continental partnership would consist in participating in goods, services, capital mobility and some temporary labour mobility as well as in a new system of inter-governmental decision making and enforcement of common rules to protect the homogeneity of the deeply integrated market. The UK would have a say on EU policies, but ultimate formal authority would remain with the EU. This results in a Europe with an inner circle, the EU, with deep and political integration, and an outer circle with less integration. In the long run this could also serve as a vision for structuring relations with Turkey, Ukraine and other countries.