The European Union and the Brexit Negotiations
Brexit has dominated headlines in the United Kingdom for years. Yet the perspective has often been centred on British politics, leaving a big part of the story untold. How did the European Union (EU) respond to the Brexit vote? How did EU principles and processes shape the EU’s negotiating strategies? And how has Brexit in turn shaped today’s EU? This event brings together renowned observers and practitioners of Brexit from the European side to discuss these issues.
This event is part of the RSE Scotland-Europe Initiative, held in partnership with the Europa Institute, University of Edinburgh
SPEAKER
Professor Brigid Laffan
Emeritus Professor at the European University Institute
Professor Laffan was Director and Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Director of the Global Governance Programme and the European Governance and Politics Programme at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence until her retirement in August 2021. Brigid Laffan is co-author (with Stefan Telle) The EU’s Response to Brexit: United and Effective (Palgrave, 2023).
Previously, Professor Laffan was Professor of European Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe) University College Dublin (UCD), and she was Vice-President of UCD and Principal of the College of Human Sciences from 2004 to 2011. Professor Laffan was also the founding director of the Dublin European Institute UCD from 1999 and in March 2004 she was elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy. She is a member of the Board of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice, the Fulbright Commission (until September 2013) and was the 2013 Visiting Scientist for the EXACT Marie Curie Network. In November 2018 she was ranked among the women who shape Europe by POLITICO and was also awarded by the University of Limerick Alumni Association with its highest honour. In September 2014 Professor Laffan was awarded the UACES Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012 she was awarded the THESEUS Award for outstanding research on European Integration. In 2010 she was awarded the Ordre national du Mérite by the President of the French Republic.
SPEAKER
Stefaan De Rynck
Head of the European Commission’s Representation in Belgium
Stefaan De Rynck will speak in a personal capacity as author of “Inside the Deal. How the EU Got Brexit Done”. He now heads the European Commission’s Representation in Belgium, creating a bridge between the EU’s executive and Belgian politics and society. His experience in EU affairs and public policies covers transport, sustainable urban development, regulation of financial services, and the single market. From 2016 until 2021, he was a senior advisor for the Brexit negotiations conducted by Michel Barnier. De Rynck teaches on EU governance at the University of Leuven (KUL).
