Piet
Eeckhout and Oliver Patel
November
2017
Key
Highlights
• With
an agreement on the future UK-EU relationship unlikely to be finalised by March
2019, transitional arrangements are necessary to allow time both for further
negotiations and for the implementation of new policies and systems, such as
customs and immigration
procedures.
• The UK
and the EU both seek a time-limited, comprehensive ‘status quo’ transition
which extends or replicates existing frameworks. However, there are significant
legal and political issues with each available option.
•
Indefinite, or time-limited but easily extendable, transitional arrangements
are required to prevent a possible cliff-edge at the end of the transition
period.
• This
paper considers five different options for the post-Brexit transition. It
assesses how each one would be implemented in practice, what the legal and
policy implications would be, and whether it is politically feasible.
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