‘Brexit’ lessons from third countries’ differentiated integration with the EU’s internal market. College of Europe Policy Brief #14.16, September 2016

Gstöhl, Sieglinde (2016) ‘Brexit’ lessons from third countries’ differentiated integration with the EU’s internal market. College of Europe Policy Brief #14.16, September 2016. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Executive Summary > The ‘Brexit’ debate has triggered new interest in the European Union’s close economic relations with its neighbours. > This external ‘differentiated integration’ flourished since the 1990s, ranging from narrow, bilateral and static models to broad, multilateral and dynamic models. > Major lessons can be drawn from these models for the UK’s ‘differentiated disintegration’: 1. deep economic integration involves domestic regulatory issues and tends to be based on the acquis; 2. cherry-picking, such as excluding the free movement of persons from a comprehensive accessto the internal market, is not on offer; and 3. even the European Free Trade Area members of the highly institutionalised European Economic Area have very limited access to EU decision-making.

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