Negotiating Brexit: A clash of approaches?
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Negotiating Brexit: A clash of approaches? Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén1 · Sangeeta Khorana2 Published online: 23 May 2020 © Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract On 31 January 2020, the UK left the European Union after 47 years of membership. This paper uses the conceptual distinction between integrative and distributive bargaining to compare the EU’s and the UK’s approaches in the negotiations that led to the Withdrawal Agreement, setting out the terms of the UK’s exit, and the Political Declaration on the framework for the future EU–UK relationship. While it would be rational to expect both parties to adopt integrative approaches given the nature of the issues, the long history of cooperation, and the parties’ mutual interest in maintaining a close relationship in the future, the comparison demonstrates that it was mainly the EU that leaned towards the integrative end of the negotiating spectrum, with extensive internal consultations, a willingness to engage in open and interest-based discussions aimed at problem-solving, and high levels of transparency, whereas the UK leaned further to the distributive end, reflecting less engagement and consultation with domestic constituents, a focus on pre-determined positions that need defending, and lower levels of transparency. Keywords European Union · Negotiations · Brexit · Integrative · Distributive
Introduction The United Kingdom’s (UK) departure from the European Union (EU), or ‘Brexit’, on 31 January 2020 was a momentous event. It separated the UK from the EU after 47 years of membership, and it was the first time a member state (MS) left the EU. Ever since the UK took the decision to leave the EU through a referendum in 2016, * Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén [email protected] Sangeeta Khorana [email protected] 1
School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster, 32‑38 Wells Street, London W1T 3UW, UK
2
Executive Business Centre EB406, Bournemouth University, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth BH8 8EB, UK
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Brexit has received extensive scholarly attention and engendered a ‘flood of writing’ (Hill 2019) examining the reasons behind the referendum result and the potential impact on the UK and the EU. However, the actual negotiations that provided the basis for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU have received less attention. Research highlights the institutional complexity and the unprecedented nature of the negotiations (e.g. Durrrant et al. 2019; Ott and Ghauri 2019; Patel 2018), but few systematically analyse the negotiating approaches adopted in the withdrawal negotiations (exceptions include Martill and Staiger’s 2018; Eidenmüller’s 2017 analyses of the UK’s approach). This paper uses the conceptual distinction between integrative and distributive bargaining (e.g. Fisher and Ury 1981; Lax and Sebenius 1986; Odell 2000) and offers a comparative assessment of the EU’s and the UK’s approaches in the negotiations that led to the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) and the Politic
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