In Brexit, EU Holds the Cards

Posted: June 13th, 2017

By Charles Grant

Charles Grant CMG is director of the Centre for European Reform (CER). He works on EU foreign and defence policy, Russia, China, the euro and Britain’s relationship with the EU. Grant is a member of the international advisory boards of the Moscow School of Civic Education, the Turkish think-tank EDAM and the French think-tank Terra Nova. He is also a member of the council of the Ditchley Foundation, and chairman of the foundation's programme committee.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative Party’s upset electoral loss on Thursday has thrown British politics into chaos and called May’s survival as prime minister into question. However, May is reportedly still planning to begin Article 50 exit negotiations from the EU on June 19. As the realities of Brexit creep closer, The Cipher Brief’s Fritz Lodge spoke with Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, to ask what the UK is looking to achieve and whether the proliferation of bilateral disputes with individual EU countries will complicate wider Brexit negotiations.

The Cipher Brief: The dispute between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar has received a lot of press recently, how do you think this will affect Brexit negotiations?

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