Sejal Parmar Discusses Brexit at European Dialogues, San Sebastián
Sejal Parmar, assistant professor in the Department of Legal Studies and core faculty at the Center for Media, Data and Society and visiting professor at the School of Public Policy, discussed “Post-Brexit” with David Gardner, international affairs editor at the Financial Times, at the latest European Dialogues event, which took place at the San Telmo Museoa in Donostia-San Sebastián on Friday 30 September at 7pm.
Through their presentations and during the lively exchange with members of the audience afterwards, the speakers reflected on the reasons for the outcome of the UK’s referendum of 23 June, including the role played by broadcast, print and online media, as well as the social, political and economic consequences of the result. They both highlighted the considerable uncertainty now surrounding the rights of the 3.5 million non-UK EU citizens living in the UK, including the 32,000 academics from other EU member states who are based at UK universities, institutions whose leading worldwide reputation critically depends on access to EU research funds. Parmar also highlighted the post-EU referendum surge in hate crimes against ethnic and religious minorities, refugees and people from other EU member states, which have been condemned by leading human rights NGOs and the UN. She also considered the legal requirements of Article 50 of the Treaty of European Union, the mechanism by which a member state can withdraw from the EU, and recalled the arguments raised in an ongoing judicial review on whether the UK government can trigger Article 50 without being authorized to do so by Parliament. The event took place two days before the British prime minister, Theresa May, pledged to trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017 and announced plans for a “great repeal bill” to replace the 1972 European Communities Act.
Previous speakers at European Dialogues have included José Manuel Durão Barroso, former President of the European Commission, Javier Solana, former Secretary General of NATO and former EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, and Xabier Alonso, professional football player who plays for Bayern Munich.
A graphic recording of the event by Angel López de Luzuriaga is available here.