Withdrawal and expulsion from the EU and EMU: some reflections

Phoebus Athanassiou

No 10, Legal Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: This paper examines the issues of secession and expulsion from the European Union (EU) and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It concludes that negotiated withdrawal from the EU would not be legally impossible even prior to the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, and that unilateral withdrawal would undoubtedly be legally controversial; that, while permissible, a recently enacted exit clause is, prima facie, not in harmony with the rationale of the European unification project and is otherwise problematic, mainly from a legal perspective; that a Member State's exit from EMU, without a parallel withdrawal from the EU, would be legally inconceivable; and that, while perhaps feasible through indirect means, a Member State's expulsion from the EU or EMU, would be legally next to impossible. This paper concludes with a reminder that while, institutionally, a Member State's membership of the euro area would not survive the discontinuation of its membership of the EU the same need not be true of the former Member State's use of the euro. JEL Classification: K

Keywords: expulsion; member states; withdrawal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12
Note: 537823
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecblwp:200910

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