The European Union and UK bilaterals

This paper challenges the view that UK relations with European states are simply a matter of bilateral interest for the two capitals concerned. Using the triangle metaphor, the paper examines obligations of EU member states (one side), considers EU’s approach to UK relations across different phases since 2015 (second side), exploring the impact of the Ukraine war and variation of interaction between different sectors, and how bilaterals with the UK have been monitored by EU structures (third side). It shows how EU conditions UK bilateralism and London's interaction with other European capitals - how the UK's bilateral relations are shaped by both the relationship between the EU and the UK - legal, political and sociological dimensions -- that the paper describes, and, less visibly, by EU/EEA rules and agreements for interactions between EU/EEA members and third countries that flow from treaty obligations entered into by those states with the EU. It details how these relationships configure cross-sectoral structures of opportunity that govern the UK's bilateral relations with European states and cross-national opportunities, which vary according to the status of the UK's partner, i.e. between EU member state, EEA member state, and close neighbours that have entered detailed agreements with the EU (Switzerland). t argues that post-Brexit Uk bilaterals are conditioned by the opportunities and constraints afforded by EU/EEA rules and agreements for interactions between EU/EEA members and third countries in general, and for relations between EU/EEA member states and the UK in particular. Based on more than three hundred contemporaneous interviews with EU and national officials carried out since 2017, the paper looks at the evolution of the UK's strategy for managing the UK from the 29 June 2016 informal meeting of the European Council to adoption of EUCO 2017 guidelines, and how the EU put in place an organisational structure for the negotiation of the UK’s withdrawal to facilitate inter-institutional interaction and exchange between member states through Council Working Group, with two sets of negotiations -- Withdrawal Agreement, then TCA -- conducted by Task Force, and meetings of the European Council at key junctures (Davies and Kassim 2022; Kassim 2023). It then looks at the development of the formal relationship between the EU and the UK -- institutions and governance of Withdrawal Agreement and TCA, including consolidation of organisation of relations with West European partners, coordination by Secretariat General in the European Commission -– as well as milestones in political relations and emergence/development/practice of solidarity norm on EU side -- following the UK's departure in January 2021, and how bilaterals with the UK are monitored by EU structures and how the EU’s approach has varied between different phases in the EU-UK relationship – 2019-2023/2023-2024/since 2024 -- and, with the impact of the Ukraine war, between different sectors, as well as how these have affected the EU’s surveillance and monitoring of bilaterals with the UK.