Los movimientos de capital y los servicios financieros en las relaciones con Reino Unido y Gibraltar tras el Brexit: ¿Seguridad jurídica o ley de la selva?

Abstract

This study undertakes a prospective work explaining how the regulation of capital movements and financial services will be organized in the relations between the EU and the United Kingdom and Gibraltar after Brexit. The paper examines the different possibilities that can be articulated for a Free Trade Agreement that rules such a future relationship, although its analysis focuses particularly on the legal and economic consequences of a hard Brexit, that is, of a withdrawal without deal. The article explains that the relocation to different Member States of financial services previously provided from the United Kingdom is causing a certain fragmentation of the European financial market. This can create problems if the liquidity and depth of these European financial markets decrease, financial services become more expensive or opportunities for regulatory arbitrage appear as legal differences between Member States become more relevant. In this context, the culmination of both the European Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union appear as unavoidable priorities in the European integration process in order to avoid financial inefficiencies that could erode the competitiveness of productive activities in the EU. Ultimately, an important part of EU’s financial autonomy is at stake here. If, after Brexit, a substantial part of the financing of EU's economic activities remains in the hands of a third country, such as the United Kingdom, the European growth will be weighed down by this dependence and by the ups and downs of its relationship with that country.

Keywords

• brexit
• gibraltar
• financial services
• capital movements
• european economic area
• ceta
• transitional period
• declaration of equivalence
• tax measures