Press

“It’s certainly an extremely useful instrument,” says Camino Mortera, an expert on justice and home affairs at the Centre for European Reform. “Once an EAW is issued, there can be no review of the case by local judges in another EU state if it falls within a list of 32 offences. There is a 48-day time limit for arrest, and extradition is automatic.”However, Ms Mortera says Britain will definitely have to leave the EAW after Brexit. “Many EU states have a constitutional ban on extraditing their own nationals outside the EU. So to accommodate the British, they would have to change their constitutions and, in some cases, hold a referendum. That isn’t going to happen.”

Several news stories and analyses (notably this story by Alex Barker, Laura Hughes and George Parker and this op-ed in the FT by Charles Grant) have looked at what the PM’s new approach entails. ...Mr Grant says some governments in northern Europe could probably live with the main thrust of what the UK wants, which is to be in the single market for goods, but not services or labour.

Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, equated the idea of border changes to “sticking a hand into a hornet’s nest”. “The question is whether you can contain territory swaps between Serbia and Kosovo and say this doesn’t set a precedent for anyone else,” Mr Bond told The National.

“The fact that the EU is itself facing increasing challenges makes its position toward the UK even less flexible,” said Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank in London. “The situation in Poland, Hungary, also the possible result in Sweden, is only reinforcing this narrative.”

Sam Lowe, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, told BusinessGreen the idea the UK can use Brexit to become a "world leader" on future environmental standards was "slightly naïve". "As a relatively smaller economy we'll struggle to pull away from the regulatory gravity of our nearest neighbour," he warned. "Of course we can innovate and push forward with new technologies, but it is yet to be determined whether we can be more effective outside of the EU than in."

Sam Lowe, trade expert at the Centre for European Reform, said that the documents probably contained few surprises for large businesses. “Bigger companies can deal with this, and are probably starting to think about dealing with it,” he said. “For the smaller guys, all this will be news to them.”