Out of Sight, Out of Mind? UK–EU Member States Bilateralism as an Enabler of Europeanisation

Whilst an extensive scholarship has questioned the role of the United Kingdom in multilateral and mini-lateral venues, less attention has been devoted to the signature of 24 bilateral declarations between the United Kingdom and EU member states from 2021 to 2023. Bilateralism has indeed been one of the preferred UK strategies to achieve foreign policy co-ordination with EU member states post-Brexit. Questioning the intentionality of the United Kingdom in initiating and investing these arrangements, we find that despite the clear attempts to deEUise its foreign policy, we are also not witnessing purposes of de-Europeanisation that would imply a repudiation of European shared values, a divergence from common priorities and an end to social encounters between UK and EU member states' officials. Instead, through a frame analysis of these declarations and interviews, we highlight that bilateralism has enabled continued Europeanisation, even though to a lesser extent in comparison with the pre-Brexit situation. Closer relations with European capitals are thus enabling Europeanisation of UK foreign policy to persist. In other words, we conclude that whilst there has been, on the side of the United Kingdom, a repudiation of the EU as a political entity, there has been no rejection of common European values and priorities, which remain shared with EU member states.