The European Parliament and the UK’s renegotiation: what do MEPs think? Part II

Debates about the future of UK-EU relations have paid little attention to the European Parliament. There have been no studies comparable to those that have looked into how member states view the renegotiation or might respond to a Brexit. Media reports indicate that the European Commission taskforce handling the UK renegotiation has even looked into ways of avoiding the Parliament becoming involved. Questions persist, however, as to whether the Parliament can be ignored. If Britain votes to leave then the EU Treaty’s withdrawal clause guarantees the Parliament a say in the final deal. To find out the views of the European Parliament BrexitVote is running a series – compiled by Tim Oliver – in which MEPs from across the Parliament set out what they think of the UK-EU renegotiation, the idea of Brexit and – most importantly – what role they think the Parliament will play. In this, the second part of the series, we hear from MEPs in the European People’s Party (EPP)