Brexiting into uncharted waters: British referendum initiates complex exit negotiations - and perhaps renewal of the European Union

Abstract

The British vote to leave takes the European Union into new legal and political territory. With application of Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union on the cards for the first time, it is already clear that leaving is not simply the reverse of joining, neither procedurally nor politically. The remaining EU-27 will need to develop an “exit doctrine” defining the rules for dealing with the United Kingdom as soon as it officially announces its intention to leave. Article 50 leaves ample political options for shaping the highly complex processes for releasing the United Kingdom from membership, reshaping its relationship with the Union and revising the treaties for an EU-27. Already crisis-stressed and disorientated before Brexit, the Union needs a renewal of integration, starting with the member states and their role in the EU system. (author's abstract)