EEA court case ‘was premature’
High Court case seeking to keep UK in EEA was thrown out by judges.
A new High Court case for judicial review arguing that the UK government has no right to take the country out of the wider European Economic Area (EEA) when it invokes the EU’s ‘article 50’ exit clause has been thrown out as too ‘premature’.
If Britain was to stay in the EEA it would remain in the single market – safeguarding many expat rights. A group of claimants argued that a separate MPs’ vote is needed to leave it because the UK’s EEA membership is separate to its EU membership (see previous story here). They said there is a specific mechanism, article 127 of the 1994 Agreement on the EEA, which relates to leaving it.
One of the claimants, Peter Wilding of pro-single market think tank British Influence, said the judges told them today their request was refused because their “legal case is solid and arguable” but “premature” because the precise mechanism by which the government intends to leave the EEA has not yet been clarified.
That is despite the fact the government stated in its Brexit white paper it wishes to leave the single market.
He added: “We are moving now from the legal approach to a political one. What this case has done is put the government on notice that this is an issue – before we raised it they didn’t know.
“Secondly we’ve alerted MPs to the fact this exists and they have a right to challenge it, so while it’s disappointing it means we’ve nailed our colours to the mast and those who are against us leaving the single market know this is something separate from leaving the EU. Now we must lobby MPs to make sure the government doesn’t pull a fast one on them.”
Mr Wilding said it is possible they will try again later. “The judge was clear that our case was robust, so yes. And if the government does make it clear it is leaving the EEA without a parliamentary vote on triggering article 127 then we’ll bring the case again.”
He said the judges speculated on ways it might be done, such as including triggering article 127 in the ‘Great Repeal Bill’ coming up in the next session of parliament or a separate EEA repeal bill.
