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Brexit round-up: 22/10/18

Welcome to this, our latest Brexit round-up. Each week we provide a succinct round-up of the latest news surrounding the Brexit process, so you can keep abreast of the issues which are likely to affect your organisation.

What has transpired from the EU Brussels summit?

European Leaders and Prime Minister Theresa May attended a summit in Brussels on 17 and 18 October 2018 to ratify outstanding issues contained in the Withdrawal Agreement. The notable conclusions of the summit are as follows: (1) both sides were unable to reach a final deal, due to the outstanding issues over the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland (2) this lack of conclusion could extend the existing agreed transition period beyond December 2020 “by a matter of months” which the EU have since agreed to (3) another EU Summit to be held in December will provide both sides with another opportunity to reach a deal.

For more information, please click here and here.

Government releases a further tranche of ‘no-deal’ technical notices

The Government has released a further 28 technical notices containing information relating to the impact of a ‘no-deal’ scenario at the end of March 2019. In particular, what the Government plans to do unilaterally, to assist affected businesses and individuals through temporary waivers and derogations. The latest release includes notices on trading electricity and gas, existing free trade agreements, commercial fishing and consumer rights. With regard to free trade agreements, the Government will seek to establish bilateral UK – third country agreements from exit day onwards with the new agreements replicating existing ones and preferential effects for third countries as far as possible.

For more information, please click here.

Institute of Directors (IoD) urges Chancellor to issues ‘Brexit planning vouchers’

The IoD has called on the Chancellor to issue vouchers in the upcoming Budget to enable small and medium-sized businesses to submit online applications for immediately redeemable vouchers. The vouchers will enable businesses to purchase legal and professional advice in order to be as prepared as possible for Brexit. The suggestion follows a survey conducted by the IoD which revealed that directors’ confidence in the economy has fallen steadily over the past six months. Stephen Martin, Director General at the IoD pointed out: “for smaller firms in particular, the need is for help to work out their individual exposure to changes that come with Brexit, and the specific measures they can take to adjust.”

For more information, please click here.

House of Commons publishes briefing paper on Brexit questions in national and EU courts

The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper discussing the main cases on issues concerning Brexit that have been subject to legal action in the UK and EU courts. In particular, the paper observes that it has proved difficult to use the courts to challenge or clarify key aspects of Brexit, with the notable exception of R (Miller and Santos) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union where the Supreme Court confirmed that the Government could not issue notice under Article 50 by way of the Royal prerogative and would require authorisation of an Act of Parliament in order to do so.

For more information, please click here.

If you have any questions about any of the issues which are raised, or would like to discuss your own organisation’s options in the lead-up to Brexit, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.

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