Brexit Is Coming: Understanding what happens next

Wed 15th Jan 2020

Edinburgh, Morton Fraser Lawyers

SUPPORTERS All Supporters

OVERVIEW View Conference Agenda

This conference, run in association with Morton Fraser LLP, examines the consequences of a deal or no deal between the UK and the EU. It will set out how the core elements of any deal – or an exit with no deal – will affect trade, access to EU markets and economic prospects and the impact of these changes upon labour for private and public sectors, tariffs, rules and regulations, customs and supply chains. If you want to understand what a deal or no deal Brexit will mean for your organisation, start here.

A draft agreement between the UK and the EU now exists – a Brexit deal in principle and that deal is almost certain to be signed off by the new UK parliament. A ‘framework for the future relationship’ between the UK and EU needs to be formally adopted. Following extensive parliamentary debate and votes, what is only the very starting point for beginning negotiations on new agreements should be reached by 31st January 2020.

The general election outcome has resulted in greater certainty that Brexit will happen. Entry into the next stage – broad certainty on the outlines of departure with specific uncertainty on many areas of detail – remains to be resolved. With a new majority government now in place in the UK parliament this conference will examine where we are going next with Brexit now that the general election dust is settling.

The conference takes place one month after the general election. It is designed to explain the shape and implications of the deal or no deal, the consequential negotiations which will have to take place and the meaning of all of these for future trade, access to markets, availability and movement of labour and the long term relationship of the UK to the EU.

The conference will take place in three sessions:

Where do we now stand?
Business as usual: What do public services, business and citizens need to do to keep calm and carry on?
What happens next?

Now that the prospect of the UK leaving the EU seems certain, dramatic change is coming. Once an agreement is ratified by both sides, years of work lie ahead in scoping, negotiating, ratifying and implementing the detail of agreements, with some commentators estimating five or more years to do so.

Core areas that the conference will discuss following the deadline for deal or no deal will include:

Where do we now stand?
Scottish and UK law making after the EU
How Brexit will affect public finances
Getting to grips with how we trade in deal and no deal scenarios
Understanding access after the Single Market
Labour markets and skills
Understanding the coming years of negotiation: Transition continued
Where and how EU compliance may still be required
Scoping our economic prospects
Core challenges ahead:
> Exporting and markets
> Being in Europe but not in the EU
> Public Sector and core services
> Hard and soft transitions