EU Law

Prior to the Treaty of Lisbon, there was nothing in EU law setting out how a member state could leave the Union. In Costa, the CJEU had indeed implied that membership was forever, describing the EEC as a ‘community of unlimited duration’ based on a Treaty concluded for an unlimited period. Article 50 TEU changed this. It had been included in the Convention to deflect criticism that member states could join but never leave. The inability to leave became another manifestation of the EU’s democratic deficit. Inclusion of Article 50 was approved by all Member States but it was envisaged that Article 50 would not be used. The four paragraphs of Article 50 set out a general framework of how to exit the Union but provide very little detail. The first part of this chapter goes through the structure of Article 50 and comments on the process of leaving the EU. The remining sections focus on the resulting agreement. Overall, it is unclear how far Article 50 succeeded in improving democratic procedures and legitimacy in the EU, but clear that this provision needs to be amended if a repeat of the lengthy and chaotic Brexit process is to be avoided.