ARTICLE 50 OF THE TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION VIS-À-VIS THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract

Based on the results of the June 2016 referendum on the issue of UK withdrawal from the EU, on March 29, 2017, the UK activated Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), thus beginning the two-year process in which the EU and the UK laid down the conditions for UK to withdraw from the Union. On November 14, 2018, as a result of the negotiations, an agreement was approved between the EU member-states and the United Kingdom for the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, but the process that was to end on March 29, 2019, was moved to October 31, 2019, due to the failure of its ratification in the UK Parliament. The UK finally left the EU on 31 January 2020.

In the meantime and simultaneously with the negotiations and the withdrawal procedure, another procedure was conducted in the background and it is crucial for this paper. The paper explains the preliminary ruling procedure under Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the Wightman case and the possibility of revoking the notification of withdrawal from the EU under Article 50 of the TEU. Therefore, in addition to the facts of the case which triggered the preliminary ruling procedure before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the paper explains the significance of the question referred to the Court, on which the Advocate General gave his opinion and the Court delivered its judgment.