Access through the back door? UK-EU Member States bilateralism as a foreign policy compensatory mechanism

Carrapico Helena;Piquet, Agathe;Wolff Sarah
(2025) “The UK in Europe: Prospects of resetting relations with the EU and bilateral partnerships” — Location: Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (26.June.2025)

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  • Carrapico HelenaNorthumbria University
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  • Piquet, Agatheorcid-logoUSL-B
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  • Wolff SarahLeiden University
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Abstract
An expanding body of scholarship has recently paid attention to UK foreign policy post-Brexit, including the role of domestic politics (Martill, 2023), the search for new foreign policy narratives that are one step removed for the EU (Opperman et al., 2020), the exploring of alternative foreign policy venues (Brattberg, 2020), and an important level of policy variation within the UK’s foreign policy towards the EU (Wolff et all., 2022). The authors have also recently discussed the reinforcement of bilateralism with EU Member States within the UK’s foreign policy and whether it relates to dynamics of de-EUisation and de-Europeanisation (Wolff et al., 2024). In comparison, less is known about how the EU is using this form of bilateralism as a compensatory mechanism for the loss of formal cooperation following Brexit negotiations and how that foreign policy strategy is faring in the current geopolitical context. The present paper proposes to explore these questions through the case study of the law enforcement and judicial cooperation policy field, where we are able to observe a particularly strong element of bilaterialism. Although the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) preserved essential cooperation – allowing continued exchanges of criminal records, DNA, and air passenger data – the UK’s exit from the EU has resulted in the loss of access to key EU mechanisms, namely the Schengen Information System II and the Europol Information System, complicating data management and cross-border investigations (Davies and Carrapico, 2025; Shellaker et al., 2023; Mitsilegas and Guidl, 2023). Other important areas, such as the extradition of suspects, has also known an important reduction in effectiveness (Davies and Carrapico, 2024; Pencheva, 2021). Foreseeing this possible loss, however, the UK Government signed 24 bilateral declarations (between 2021 and 2023) with EU Member States that reflect their ambition to pursue closer cooperation in this policy field, beyond what the TCA offers. In addition, the UK Government is hoping to translate these ambitions into legally binding agreements through new powers provided by its upcoming Crime and Policing Bill (UK Government, 2025). The Paper proposes to carry out a frame analysis of the law enforcement and judicial cooperation ambitions contained within these declarations and to compare them with the level of cooperation that the TCA currently enables. The authors will then use this data to reflect, through the theoretical lenses of venue shopping (Guiraudon, 2002), on how bilateralism is being used as 1) a compensatory mechanism for lost cooperation, and as 2) a strategy to bypass the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and EU institutions. The paper will conclude with a wider reflection on the way this foreign policy strategy is being developed in the context of widespread geopolitical tensions.
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Carrapico Helena, Piquet, A., & Wolff Sarah. (2025). Access through the back door? UK-EU Member States bilateralism as a foreign policy compensatory mechanism. “The UK in Europe: Prospects of resetting relations with the EU and bilateral partnerships”, Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/259855