Implementing the Windsor Framework
The recurring trope of getting Brexit ‘done’ is incredibly hard to escape: the public (including my family, as far as I can tell) would love not to have the matter occupy their minds any more, and those more connected to matters would love to be in a more regular steady state.
Sadly, things don’t actually work like that.
So the Windsor Framework is not only not a ‘doing’ of Brexit, but its unveiling at the end of February wasn’t even the ‘doing’ of the Framework itself: it’s a pile of bits and pieces, almost all of which require more work to be given effect.
To keep some track of this, I’ve made the graphic below, which includes all of the Framework elements and their current status between being announced and coming into effect: I’ll update regularly.
Some notes are in order here though.
Firstly, even this busy graphic doesn’t include everything. The British government has made various other (vaguer) commitments, on a Parliamentary vote and on the arrangements for the Brake, but until we have something closer to chapter and verse on their form I’m keeping these off the table.
Secondly, processes of approval vary wildly here. The stuff that’s ‘in effect’ are just statements, while several of the other things have to get through multiple steps in the EU, or the UK or the Joint Committee structure. As much as possible, I will link out to document versions (the PDF version has all the clickable links), since that’s obviously of consequence, although the logic of the Framework is that the scope for deviating from the original package is pretty limited.
Finally, all of this just highlights once more that the Protocol (and by extension Brexit as a whole) is a process: the Brake is a response to the dynamic nature of single market alignment. Which means we are never going to get to a fixed end-point in this, just varying degrees of stability and resilience of mechanisms to manage that evolving relationship.
