Lack of Brexit plan may open for win-win solutions

When a majority voted for Brexit on 23 June, there was no plan for how it should be implemented. The lack of it has been criticized, and at an evening dinner in Berlin yesterday – May’s first foreign trip since becoming prime minister seven days ago – May stressed that she needed until the end of the year to come up with a UK position – even if that upset some EU member states.

A period with uncertainty of what the UK wants and what the EU is willing to offer is unfortunate. There are good reasons to do it as short as possible. But this situation of uncertainty also holds opportunities for solutions that can provide gains for both the UK and the EU. Even if the EU has said clearly that there will be no negotiations before UK has invoked Article 50, it seems that the process of creating a platform for Brexit will include inputs both from countries within the United Kingdom and from the EU and its member countries.

This position-building period may prove to be very important. The UK´s Brexit strategy must include both the relations between countries within the UK, between the UK and the EU and between the UK and the rest of the world. However, also the EU and the Union's member states need to identify Brexit solutions that might be useful and provide benefits for themselves. This will be difficult. However, by using the time until January 2017 to identify opportunities and establish a framwork, the basis for the Article 50 proceedings could be far better than it is at present. 

PM May seems to choose such a way of working. Yesterday, after talks with Chancellor Merkel, she said 

All of us will need time to prepare for these negotiations and the United Kingdom will not invoke Article 50 until our objectives are clear. That is why I have said already that this will not happen before the end of this year.

I understand this timescale will not please everyone but I think it is important to provide clarity on that now. We should strive for a solution which respects the decision of British voters, but also respects the interests of our European partners.

  
Shortly after May became PM she visited Scotland and had talks with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, and this week she visits her colleagues in Germany and France. Perhaps this can be seen as a sort of "common" Brexit preparation which will last until Article 50 is invoked.