05/04/17

A busy week on the road to Brexit - A&O analysis of UK Government White Paper

In the week that the Article 50 Notice was served, the EU 27 and the UK both gave broad indications on their approaches to the negotiations ahead and the UK Government published its White Paper on its proposed Great Repeal Bill.  

The week of 27-31 March was a busy week on the road to Brexit. The EU 27 and the UK both gave broad indications of how they plan to approach the Brexit negotiations, via the publication of three documents: the UK’s Article 50 notice, a draft of the European Parliament’s motion for a resolution on the negotiations and a draft of the European Council’s negotiation guidelines. Whilst it is still far from clear what the final destination will be, the direction of travel is becoming marginally clearer.  

We also heard more about how the UK Government plans to plug the huge gap that would appear in the UK statute book if EU laws were allowed to fall away on Brexit, via the publication of the UK Government’s White Paper on its proposed Great Repeal Bill, with its striking focus on the importance of maintaining legal certainty.  

In the A&O paper available by the link below, we consider what these documents tell us about how the negotiations will progress and about how the UK Government will manage the “momentous” task ahead, identifying the potholes we see along the way, and highlighting the key implications for commercial parties.


Download A busy week on the road to Brexit (PDF). 

dotted_texture