Brexit Faces Another Legal Challenge

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Brexit continues to get more complicated. After a slight majority of Britons voted to leave the European Union back in June, a number of roadblocks have been thrown up by groups that see the decision as misguided at the least, and dangerous to Britain at worst. There have also been a number of legal questions about it, the most recent of which has been posed by a group called British Influence.

British Influence holds that leaving the European Union and leaving the European Economic Area are two different things, and that the latter was never on the ballot, meaning that a vote for Brexit was not a vote to leave the EEA.

The EEA is a wider economic market that allows non-EU countries such as Norway to have closer economic ties with the EU. British Influence is afraid that leaving the EU will automatically mean leaving the EEA, which seems to be the general consensus. The other consensus, though, is that leaving the EEA would be a terrible idea because it would hamper British access to European markets and cost thousands of jobs.

Some in England argue that leaving the EU is not the same thing as leaving the EEA, since other nations have joined the EEA without being members of the EU.

However, attorney Jean-Claude Piris, a leading authority on European Law who served as official legal counsel on a number of EU treaties, says “The UK’s withdrawal from the EU will mean an automatic cessation of its membership of the EEA as an EEA-EU member. In order to become an EEA member, you have to either be an EU member or an EFTA (European Free Trade Agreement) member.” Britain is not an EFTA member.

The goal of British Influence is essentially to have the Brexit vote overturned, as it would imply that leaving the EEA without a separate vote to do so would be illegal. This all comes in close to a decision, yet to be made, about whether or not the Brexit vote is even binding, or whether it is actually up to Parliament whether or not the UK should leave the EU.

If a second vote happens, it is unlikely that Brexit would pass, as the original vote won by a narrow margin. Across England and Wales, which voted to leave, there was a widespread feeling of morning-after regret; many formerly pro-leave Britons expressed concerns that voting for Brexit had been a mistake. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay, and it is likely that they would do so again.