Revista Temas de Derecho Constitucional

326 Revista Temas de Derecho Constitucional an agreement envisaged by the European Union with the Treaties, but rather asked the Court to interpret a provision of EU law in order to enable it to give judgment in the main proceedings. 37 Based on these considerations, the Court declared the question admissible, contrary to what the UK held. The Court then, proceeded to respond to the question posed by the Court of Session, Inner House, First Division (Scotland) to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling in the following terms: ‘Where, in accordance with Article 50 [TEU], a Member State has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, does EU law permit that notice to be revoked unilaterally by the notifying Member State; and, if so, subject to what conditions and with what effect relative to the Member State remaining within the European Union?’. 38 4.3. Withdrawal from the EU: Conditions and procedure set out in Article 50 TEU The Court then outlined the multilateral procedure triggered by the notification in Ar- ticle 50(2) and (3), based on the RO Case . 39 The right to withdraw from the EU as codi- fied in Article 50 of the revised EU Treaty (TEU) is a complex provision which comprises several stages: “first, notification to the European Council of the intention to withdraw, secondly, negotiation and conclusion of an agreement setting out the arrangements for withdrawal, taking into account the future relationship between the State concerned and the European Union and, thirdly, the actual withdrawal from the Union on the date of entry into force of that agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification given to the European Council, unless the latter, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend that period.” 40 Because of the relevance for the analysis, the following aspects will be considered: (1) the ‘conditions’ for withdraw- al, (2) the procedural aspects, and (3) the legal effects of withdrawal. 4.3.1. Conditions for withdrawal According to Article 50(1) TEU, any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Eu- ropean Union in accordance with its own constitutional provisions . EU law itself does not impose any specific substantive conditions on a Member State’s right to withdraw. The underlying rationale of this rule is to reassure potential Member States that they will re- main able to withdraw from the EU at any time subject only to their own constitutional provisions. 41 From the perspective of UK constitutional law, the question concerning 37 Para 35. 38 Para 16. 39 Judgment, paras 51-55. 40 Judgment of 19 September 2018, RO (C 327/18 PPU, EU:C:2018:733, paragraph 46. 41 See for example, Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, in: Christoph Vedder/ Woff Heinschtel von Heinegg (eds.): Europäischer Verfassungsvertrag, Handkommentar (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007), 256.