Brexit in microcosm: legal implications for the UK and Spain

19 May 2017

On 8 May, the FIDE Foundation in Madrid held a seminar on the legal effects and repercussions of Brexit for Spanish companies and Spanish citizens . The speakers were Christopher Muttukumaru CB , Miguel Sampol (the Director of CJEU Litigation in the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Miguel Sampol, and Manuel Conthe, a distinguished economist and international arbitrator. The seminar was chaired by Rafael Dominguez Olivera, chief legal adviser, Ministry of Infrastructure, Madrid.

Copies of the full handouts tabled at the meeting are available here.

In debate, the speakers and attendees covered a number of post-Brexit issues , including:

Citizenship rights, not least in the context of the European Commission’s negotiating directives published on 3 May;
Illustrative horizontal issues which will need to be covered in a permanent or transitional EU-UK trade agreement. Discussion centred on the impacts for contracts which straddle the pre- and post-Brexit boundary, on state aid and on environmental law;
The possible delays which might result from the need for national constitutional requirements to be satisfied if agreements under Article 218/TFEU need to be ratified by the EU27 (subsequently the judgment of the CJEU in respect of the EU- Singapore Free Trade Agreement was delivered on 16 May, confirming the possibility of delays, depending on the substantive content of any trade agreement);
The future role of the CJEU.

An executive summary of the key points made in discussion is available here.