Outside the EU

In the debates about the UK's future relationship with the European Union, all sorts of possible alternatives have been bandied about, from "Singapore on the Thames" to "Canada Plus", from "Switzerland" to "Ukraine", from "Norway" to "Australia". But what do these alternative relationship models really consist of and would they be viable for the UK?

Martin Westlake brings together distinguished contributors to examine these various options, real and potential, and to consider whether they would offer a workable solution for the continued relationship between the EU and post-Brexit Britain.

These essays offer expert insight into the scale and challenge of the practical issues facing Britain as it seeks to establish a new future with its largest trading partner.

“As the UK still grapples with its real policy choices outside the EU, here is an excellent, timely volume of crisp, well-written essays which cuts through a lot of the fog of confusion, delusion and misinformation in the national debate. The perspectives are genuinely diverse, and come from across the entire European continent - and beyond it. The authors deal with the real trade-offs and dilemmas others outside the EU have faced and the choices they have made when negotiating with it. The history of our relationships with our nearest neighbours and largest trading partners no more ends in 2020 than it started in 1973. This is an excellent primer for how to think about the next chapter.”

As the UK still grapples with its real policy choices outside the EU, here is an excellent, timely volume of crisp, well-written essays which cuts through a lot of the fog of confusion, delusion and misinformation in the national debate. The perspectives are genuinely diverse, and come from across the entire European continent – and beyond it. The authors deal with the real trade-offs and dilemmas others outside the EU have faced and the choices they have made when negotiating with it. The history of our relationships with our nearest neighbours and largest trading partners no more ends in 2020 than it started in 1973. This is an excellent primer for how to think about the next chapter. -- Sir Ivan Rogers, UK Permanent Representative to the European Union, 2013–17

Martin Westlake is Visiting Professor in Practice at the European Institute, London School of Economics, Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, and a research fellow in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. He has worked in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, with the European Parliament, and since 2003, in the European Economic and Social Committee, where he served as Secretary General from 2008 to 2013. He has published widely on European institutions and on European and UK politics, including a major political biography of Neil Kinnock.

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