17 December 2017

UK sanctions policy faces uncertain future, warns Committee

Key findings

• After Brexit, the UK will be able to unilaterally impose sanctions, but restrictive measures are most effective when imposed at the same time as other countries.
• The principal interests and threats facing the UK and the EU-27 will not change fundamentally when the UK leaves the EU.
• The Committee welcomes the Government's intention to continue to work in close partnership with the EU and other international partners after Brexit, but notes that the Government's proposed "tailored" and "unprecedented" approach to UK-EU collaboration on sanctions policy is untested.
• The UK should pursue informal engagement, as the US does, with the EU on sanctions. However, this is not a substitute for the influence it currently exercises through formal inclusion in the EU meetings where the bloc's sanctions policy is agreed.
• If participation in the Common Foreign and Security Policy after Brexit is not possible—or not sought by the UK—then the Government should propose that a political forum be established between the UK and the EU, for regular discussion and co-ordination of sanctions policy. [...]

• Report: Brexit: sanctions policy 

© House of Lords