Democracy Impacts

Open Europe: EEA Fails to Address Brexiters' Concerns

August 04, 2016

A briefing from UK think tank Open Europe explains why Britain's option of joining the European Economic Area in place of its membership of the EU would not address the reasons why most "Brexit" voters chose to leave the EU, including the inability of the UK to restrict immigration.
UK Peer Calls for Brexit Delay

August 01, 2016

The Independent reports that Baroness Wheatcroft of the British House of Lords has called for her body to delay any legislation that aims to trigger a British exit from the EU in order to encourage the launch of a second referendum on the UK's membership in the bloc.
Academic: May Ignores Aims of Average Brexit Voter

August 01, 2016

Professor Vernon Bogdanor of King's College, London, writes that newly installed UK Prime Minister Theresa May has a sharply different vision of a free trade-oriented and liberal post-Brexit Britain than people who voted for the UK to leave the EU as a protest against globalization's effects on the working class.
May: EU Migrant Pledge Hinges on Brexit Negotiations

July 28, 2016

At a press conference with the Italian Prime Minister, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said her Government would only guarantee the rights of EU migrants to continue living in the UK following Brexit if other EU countries make the same pledge for UK migrants living on their soil.
MPs Seek Prevention of Pre-Brexit Migration Surge

July 28, 2016

Warning of a surge in migration from the EU to the UK as Brexit approaches, members of the British Parliament's Home Affairs Committee have urged the government to identify a "cut-off date" after which EU migrants to the country will no longer be permitted to remain.
UK Secretary Seeks EU Free Trade Deal

July 27, 2016

Politico reports that UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is seeking to secure a free trade deal with the EU, rather than an agreement to enter a customs union with the bloc, by the time of Britain's next general election in 2020.
TUC Demands Post-Brexit Preservation of Workers' Rights

July 26, 2016

The Trades Union Congress has called on the British Government to maintain the same level of workers' rights in the UK following the country's exit from the EU and is seeking a "central role" in Brexit negotiations.
S&P Labels EU Structure "Unsustainable"

July 26, 2016

City A.M. reports that the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has issued a report declaring the EU's "pooling" of national sovereignty "unsustainable in its current form" and calling either for deeper integration in the EU or a looser confederation of nation states.
UK Councillor Seeks Stronger Post-Brexit EU Institutions

July 26, 2016

Richard Lewis of the Scottish National Party writes that the UK's exit permits an opportunity for the EU to deepen integration and provide for stronger institutions, including a directly elected EU President and Members of the European Parliament who can launch their own legislation.
Scholars Seek Quick Brexit, Transition Period

July 25, 2016

Damian Chalmers of the National University of Singapore and London School of Economics and Anand Menon of Kings College London write that the UK should negotiate a quick exit from the EU in the year 2018, restoring parliamentary sovereignty and cutting off free movement, followed by a transition period in which Britain and the EU work out details of their future relationship.