Brexit in microcosm: legal implications for the UK and Spain

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.

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.