Out of Sight, out of Mind? How UK bilateralism with European capitals in times of Politicisation enables Europeanisation to continue

While a lot of the scholarship has questioned the role of the UK in multilateral and mini-lateral venues, less attention has been devoted to the signature of 24 bilateral declarations between the UK and EU member states, from 2021 to 2023. Yet, bilateralism has been one of the preferred UK strategies to continue foreign policy coordination with EU member states post-Brexit. Questioning the intentionality of the UK in initiating and investing these declarations, we find that while there is a clear disengagement of the UK from EU structures that we qualify as one of the indicators of de-EUisation, we are also not witnessing a process of de-Europeanisation that would lead to a repudiation of EU fundamental norms, divergence from EU priorities and an end to social encounters between UK and EU officials. Instead, through a frame analysis of these declarations we demonstrate that bilateralism has enabled continued Europeanisation, in spite of a context of politicisation of UK-EU relations, even though to a lesser extent in comparison with the pre-Brexit situation. Closer relations with European capitals are thus enabling europeanisation to persist