Beyond The Brink: The Brinkmanship Is Over For #BrexitBoris And His Merry Band Of Brexidiots

Source: Byline Times

Boris Johnson has always known that leaving the EU is not in the UK's interests. Now he must live with it - and each of us must take our own path out of this mess.

Like spoilt kids, Johnson and his Brexidiot cronies want Little England to have the benefits of EU membership without the obligations. 

Their only weapon has been brinkmanship - threats of a referendum, threats of invoking Article 50, threats of leaving without a withdrawal agreement, and now threats of trading with no free trade deal. 

But the EU27 have called Britain's bluff every single time, and now Britain is beyond the brink. 

All that is left is endless whingeing about how tedious it is to be a 'third country' and the negotiation of 600 international trade agreements. 

There is no half-way house. 

This is crippling for services, in particular. The City can push for 'equivalence' instead of passporting for financial services, but knows that equivalence can end quickly (ask the Swiss). Everyone else is stuck with a mish mash of different rules, including inconsistent recognition of qualifications and some weird visa restrictions for business travellers. Why else would the EU have simplified it all with just 'four freedoms of movement' for goods, services, capital and labour? What else would tempt others to join the trade club?

So people and businesses must simply adapt to the UK's new status.  If you want to export anything to the EEA, then relocate the relevant operations to an EU27 member state, get qualified there (as I did in 2018) - whatever it takes.

The time for trusting the UK government to look after your interests is over.

You're on your own.

For Your Personal Brexit Preparations: Which EU Countries Allow Dual Citizenship?

While I hope Brexit will be stopped, I'm expecting and preparing for the worst. So, with only two months before the EU approval process would need to start and Brexidiots in charge on the UK side, I'm expecting the UK to 'crash out' on 29 March 2019, without agreeing the terms of withdrawal (let alone any deal on future trade).

As a self-employed lawyer, there's both the professional and personal angles to consider.

Professionally, my UK legal qualifications will no longer be recognised in the EEA. So, I need to get qualified in an EEA state in order to continue credibly advising my UK clients on their EEA business activities, and advise my EEA clients on their UK activities. The only realistic option is adding an Irish legal practising certificate and consulting through an Irish law firm. Ireland will be the only truly common law jurisdiction left in the EEA, as both Malta and Cyprus have a mix of civil and common law, and it's laws are still very similar to the law in England and Wales.

That rather costly process is well underway, as previously explained.  

But that doesn't mean I personally have the right to live in Ireland, of course. So the question remains whether I could replace my UK right to live and work anywhere in the EEA by means of citizenship in the remaining 27 EU member states or one of the 3 EEA member state (Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein) - without losing my UK and Australian passports? 

As the EU Parliament research reveals, there are differing national approaches to being or becoming a citizen of the various EU member states. But the key issue is whether your favoured country allows you to retain your UK (or other) citizenship. For instance, the following countries would require you to give up your UK citizenship in order to become a citizen there:

• Austria 
• Bulgaria 
• Croatia 
• Czech Republic
• Denmark 
• Estonia 
• Germany
• Latvia 
• Lithuania 
• Netherlands 
• Slovenia 
• Spain

So there goes any chance of moving to, say, Barcelona or Mallorca without first becoming a citizen elsewhere in the EEA.

Unfortunately, given the dual nationality of my spouse and children, of the 3 additional EEA countries, only Norway requires you to renounce your other citizenship(s) if you wish to become a citizen there (i.e. rather than automatically having it by birth etc) -  although a change in the law has just been submitted to the Norwegian parliament. 

Otherwise, the options are as follows (excluding those where the EU research says you can still later lose your citizenship by living somewhere else):

• Belgium
• Cyprus 
• Finland 
• France 
• Greece 
• Hungary 
• Ireland 
• Italy 
• Luxembourg 
• Malta 
• Poland 
• Portugal 
• Romania 
• Slovakia 
• Sweden

and 

• Iceland
• Liechtenstein 

Remember, any port in a storm...

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag: The EU Bars UK Financial Outsourcing

A key EU financial authority has asked EU regulators to be strict on UK firms seeking to escape the impact of Brexit. The concern is that having lost their EU passporting rights, desperate Brits will try to get authorised in Europe but continue to rely on UK managers and operations. 

"UK-based market participants may seek to relocate entities, activities or functions to the EU27 in order to maintain access to EU financial markets. In this context, these market participants may seek to minimise the transfer of the effective performance of those activities or functions in the EU27, i.e. by relying on the outsourcing or delegation of certain activities or functions to UK-based entities, including affiliates. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the conditions for authorisation as well as for outsourcing and delegation do not generate supervisory arbitrage risks."

ESMA even proposes a Cat o' nine tails set of 9 "principles" to prevent UK firms making the best of Brexit: 

1. No automatic recognition of existing financial firm authorisations;
2. Authorisation processes by the EU27 should be "rigorous and efficient";
3. Regulators must verify the objective reasons for relocation;
4. Regulators should avoid "letterbox" entities in the EU27 - the EU firm must perform substantial activities;
5. Outsourcing and delegation to third countries (like the UK) is only possible under strict conditions;
6. Substantive decision-making must occur in the EU, especially over outsourced activities;
7. There must be sound local governance of EU entities, by resident directors/senior managers;
8. Regulators must have the resources and data to effectively supervise and enforce EU law. 
9. ESMA is watching and will co-ordinate to ensure adequate and consistent supervision. 

Of course, the UK could retaliate with red tape of its own. Brexit is also a challenge for 8,008 EEA firms that hold 23,532 passports (about 3 each) to cover their UK offerings.