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Article 50: What is it, and how does it work?

All you need to know about the article that will trigger Brexit, explained

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When the European Union member states drafted and then approved the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, they did not think anyone would ever want to leave ‒ it was a few years before the Eurozone crisis, and the bloc was still glowing from its watershed expansion eastwards.

So when, for the first time in its history, the EU included an article – the now-infamous Article 50 ‒ for a potential exit, they left it deliberately vague.

“The Treaty of Lisbon was drafted with the idea that [Article 50] would not be used, and to make it pretty hard to exit in a smooth way,” says Chris Bickerton, a lecturer at Cambridge University and author of The European Union: A Citizen’s Guide.

Brexit Concerns

Brexit Concerns

  • 1/26 Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs

    Brexit will put British patients at the “back of the queue” for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned – forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA – because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice.

    Getty Images

  • 2/26 London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks

    One of Germany’s top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as “gateway to Europe” for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the Bundesbank—Germany’s central bank—told a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were “equivalent” between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still “miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market”, the BBC reports.

    Jason Hawkes

  • 3/26 Exodus

    The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union

    Shutterstock

  • 4/26 Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer

    Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEO’s performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterling’s fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors.

    Rex

  • 5/26 Theresa May: UK to leave single market

    Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all".

    Getty

  • 6/26

    Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court

    Getty

  • 7/26

    Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit

    PA wire

  • 8/26

    SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit

    PA wire

  • 9/26

    Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais

    Getty

  • 10/26

    Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp

    Getty

  • 11/26

    The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today

    EPA

  • 12/26

    Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain

    Reuters

  • 13/26

    Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry

    Getty

  • 14/26

    Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote

    PA

  • 15/26

    The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging

    Getty

  • 16/26

    Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities

    Getty

  • 17/26

    A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses

    Getty

  • 18/26

    Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes

    Getty

  • 19/26

    A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU

    Getty

  • 20/26

    Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum

    Getty

  • 21/26

    Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU

    Getty

  • 22/26

    NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit

    Getty

  • 23/26

    The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future

    Getty

  • 24/26

    A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain

    Reuters

  • 25/26

    The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions

    Getty

  • 26/26

    The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market

    Getty

 

What this means in practice now is days, weeks and even months of political uncertainly as all sides try to work out how to interpret the treaty.

Here is what is spelled out explicitly in Article 50:

A government must trigger the article by officially notifying the EU of its intention to leave. Then there is a two-year period in which the terms of the leaver’s exit are negotiated.

During this time Britain would no longer be able to take part in any EU decision-making, and any exit agreements must be approved by all 27 remaining EU nations and the European Parliament. Then after Britain’s formal exit, fresh negotiations can begin on any new trade deals. 

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But crucially, there is no timescale or mention of when to trigger Article 50 after a referendum, leaving many politicians worried about a long period of uncertainty.

Even after the issue of the triggering of Article 50 is resolved, the British government must then decide its negotiating position, and decide what sort of relationship they want with the EU in the future. Would they still want access to the single market? What status would they want for the EU citizens currently employed in Britain, and Britons working elsewhere in Europe? What sort of trade deals would they wish to pursue? These proposals would then be put to the other 27 EU member states.

It is a process which European Council President Donald Tusk has warned could take up to seven years, and it is likely to be a bitter fight.

“There has to be some sort of deterrent that the other 27 member states now need to build into this so that there is a clear message that this is not an attractive model,” says Mr Techau.

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