Article 50 and the Self-Empowerment of the European Parliament in the Brexit Process

Article 50 provides the basic rules for the processes of exiting the European Union. Like almost any other treaty provision, article 50 contains a significant degree of ambiguity. This offers actors room for interpreting and re-defining the rules of the game within the existing provisions. The notion of incomplete contract captures best this situation: power-maximizing actors use the unavoidable interpretative gaps in intergovernmental agreements in order to expand their powers. Previous research has shown that the European Parliament behaves as such a power-maximizer and the case of article 50 (whose role is limited to vote on the withdrawal agreement) offers another opportunity to flesh out this hypothesis. Starting that limited role, the EP has expanded it to become a salient player during Brexit negotiations.