United Kingdom-European Union policing and law enforcement cooperation in the post-Brexit era

Cooperation between European law enforcement agencies has grown reflecting deepening social and economic cooperation between European states. The formal withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) (‘Brexit’) generated concerns that the ever-developing structures and processes of cooperation would become fragmented with implications for security. However, few studies have empirically documented the impact of Brexit in its immediate aftermath on policing cooperation. This article starts to fill this empirical gap. Between 2021 and 2023, we drew on a substantial number of interviews with senior, active stakeholders from both police and judicial cooperation in UK and EU areas, in order to critically assess how UK and EU law enforcement personnel have understood the changes brought about by Brexit and worked together in the immediate post-Brexit environment. We find a perception amongst stakeholders that the UK’s departure from the EU was muted over the immediate Brexit period. This was the result of formal contingency planning pre-Brexit, enduring informal relationships between practitioners, and a ‘cushioning’ effect provided by the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. However, we also find complexity. Stakeholders reporting that the implications of Brexit may not be revealed for some time; a perception that the UK had lost influence in decision-making at both the policy and operational level; and that some areas of UK-EU cooperation have been more affected than others (notably in the fields of information exchange and extradition). We consider the implications of these findings.