What is the EU acquis Communautaire and the scope of the impact assessment?

Why is an impact assessment important?

Brexit is the UK’s biggest political transformation programme in more than two generations. It needs a clearly defined strategy, a detailed plan of execution, and a political team that is confident and competent to deliver. To assist with transformation and compliance programmes, businesses conduct impact assessments to help them with the planning and identification of (positive) options that are available. The UK government has failed to do so, which is one of the reasons why there is still uncertainty in how to deliver Brexit and what the industry sector specific implications are. 

“Brexit: A Political Crisis for Europe: Impact Assessment and Lessons Learnt for the European Union” (ISBN:1908585099) and its sector-based impact assessments should be relevant not only to the UK, but also to the wider European context.  The impact assessment presents both the positive and negative implications of Brexit, within the limits of what at present is foreseeable. The assessment follows the structure of the acquis Communautaire (or just acquis for short) which is code of European law that is brought to bear when accession candidates are starting the process for applying for EU membership.

What is the acquis Communautaire?

The 35 policy domains covered in the acquis are far-reaching. It is the cumulative body of European Union legislation, acts of state, and court decisions which constitute the body of European Union law from 1958 to the present day. It includes:

1. the content, principles and political objectives of the Treaties
2. standards mandated and referred-to in EU law (treaties and legislation – Directives, Regulations and Decisions, Declarations and Resolutions), and formulated and adopted thereafter
3. Declarations and resolutions taken by the EU supranational organs
4. legislation made pursuant to the EU Treaties, and the consequent case law of the European Court of Justice
5. international agreements concluded by the Community, and those ntered into by the Member States themselves within the sphere of the European Union’s activities 
6. legal instruments in the domain of freedom, security and justice, and under the Common Foreign and Security Policy
7. legal instruments in the domain of justice and home affairs (i.e., asylum policy, immigration and external borders, police and judicial authorities, fight against terrorism and organised crime).

The term acquis is also used to refer to laws adopted under the Schengen Agreement before it was integrated into the EU legal order by the Treaty of Amsterdam. New EU Member States must accept all the existing acquis and institute mechanisms to incorporate amendments and additions as they are legislated.  

The authors of this book found that the acquis provided a perfect template for constructing an impact assessment. There is no pre-established framework for transacting the exit of a country from the EU, and understandably this is uncharted territory for both the UK and the EU. As the acquis has already successfully served as a robust framework for joining the EU, it should also be able to serve equally well for leaving countries – and understanding its implications.

What are the 35 EU acquis policy domains?

The impact assessment is based on the assumption that the UK will leave the Common Market, which would mean that the four freedoms of movement – of goods, people, services and capital – would apply to the UK-EU relationship no more. Based on these assessments, the authors believe that the impact of Brexit on the several policy domains will be as followed:

1. Free Movement of Goods  (High impact)
2. Free Movement of Workers (High impact)
3. Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services (High impact)
4. Free Movement of Capital  (High impact)
5. Public Procurement (Medium impact
6. Company Law: High impact
7. Intellectual Property Law: Medium impact
8. Competition Policy (Medium impact)
9. Financial Services Law  (High impact)
10. The Information Society and Media Law  (High impact)
11. Agriculture and Rural Development (High impact)
12. Food safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy (Medium impact)
13. Fisheries (High impact)
14. Transport Policy (High impact)
15. Energy (Medium impact)
16. Taxation (Medium impact)
17. Economic and Monetary Policy (High impact)
18. Statistics (Low impact)
19. Social Policy and Employment Law (High impact)
20. Enterprise and Industrial Policy (High impact)
21. Trans-European Networks (High impact)
22. Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments (High impact)
23. Judiciary and Fundamental Rights (Medium impact)
24. Justice, Freedom and Security (High impact)
25. Science and Research (High impact)
26. Education and Culture (High impact)
27. Environment  (Medium impact)
28. Consumer and Health Protection (Medium impact)
29. Customs Union (High impact)
30. External Relations (High impact)
31. Foreign Security and Defence Policy (High impact)
32. Financial Control (Medium impact)
33. Financial and Budgetary Provisions (High impact)
34. Institutions (High impact)
35. Other Issues (Unknown impact)  

The publication overview each of the 35 policy domains of the acquis Communautaire, by (1) identifying the Directorate General responsible and/or the law that governs this domain; (2) outlining what the policy domain includes; (3) assessing how a hard Brexit or No Deal would impact the UK in general, and business and citizens specifically. Each Section concludes with an Impact Assessment Summary. 

Although this Brexit impact assessment is the most comprehensive that has been published to date and it presents a balanced view outlining the pros and cons, the authors would like to stress that it is not complete; each Section could easily take up a book of its own. With this in mind, the aim is to present to the reader the enormity of Brexit, how it impacts every aspect of our life. For politicians and businesses the following Sections provide a template on how they can assess the impact of Brexit. 

“Brexit: A Political Crisis for Europe: Impact Assessment and Lessons Learnt for the European Union” is available at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Amazon.de and through other channels in more than 50 countries.