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This article answers the following questions:
- What has happened since 31 January 2020 as a result of Brexit?
- What will happen next as a result of Brexit?
This article will give you a lot of information about this.
What has happened since 31 January 2020 as a result of Brexit?
The UK and the EU have made a Withdrawal Agreement.
Withdraw means to leave something.
A Withdrawal Agreement is an agreement about:
How the UK leaves the EU
How to formally end relationships after withdrawal.
The UK and the EU have many relationships.
The Withdrawal Agreement made final decisions about them.
Examples of the relationships are:
- political relationships
- trade relationships
The Withdrawal Agreement was effective from 1 February 2020.
That was the day after the UK left the EU.
The UK still has EU rights until the end of 2020.
EU rights are special rights for EU countries.
This is why the UK is still part of the EU Single Market.
The Single Market means the EU as one territory without internal borders.
EU citizens can buy and sell goods and services freely in any EU member state.
People can easily move to live in another EU country.
They can also work in another EU country.
Or they can study or do training in another EU country.
The UK is also still a member of the EU Customs Union.
The EU Customs Union means:
The customs services in all 27 EU countries follow the same rules.
Each customs service checks all goods coming from other countries.
They help to protect the people living in their country.
Because sometimes people send dangerous goods from other countries.
Customs services also charge money for checking goods.
This money is called customs duty.
But members of the EU do not need to pay customs duty
when they send goods to other EU countries.
Only non-EU countries have to pay customs duty.
The EU wants to make an agreement with the UK by the end of 2020.
The agreement will decide how the EU will work with the UK in future.
The EU and the UK have made a Policy Statement.
Policy statement means:
How a country will act in future
Or how the EU will act in future.
The UK and the EU now know how they will act.
This is helpful when they talk to each other.
And when they make decisions about the UK leaving the EU.
What happens after the Transition Period?
The Withdrawal Agreement gives the date for the end of the Transition Period.
The Transition Period is the time between 31 January 2020 and the end of 2020.
31 January 2020 is the date when the UK left the EU.
So the Transition Period will end on 31 December 2020.
The Transition Period cannot last longer than 31 December 2020.
For this to have happened, an arrangement would have been necessary by 1 July 2020.
But unfortunately the UK did not respond by this deadline.
So the UK will not be a member of the Single Market any more from 1 January 2021.
It will also not be a member of the EU Customs Union.
Even if the EU and the UK make another agreement before then.
The relationship between them will be different from 2021.
This will affect the customs services.
Everybody will need to get used to changes because of this.
It will have an effect on:
countries
- businesses
- people in Germany
- people in all EU countries
Everybody needs to prepare for the changes after the end of the Transition Period.
They still need to prepare even if the EU and the UK make a different agreement.
The EU and the UK may possibly not decide on a new agreement at all.
Whatever happens,
everybody needs to get ready for the changes after the end of the Transition Period.
The EU helps everybody by giving them lots of information.
The information is about the effects of the Transition Period.
The EU sent a message on 9 July 2020 about the end of the Transition Period.
The message is called a readiness communication.
The EU is also working on producing more than 100 readiness notices.
The readiness notices give information about the changes after Brexit.
They are aimed at particular stakeholders.
Particular stakeholders are particular people and businesses.
These people and businesses will be directly affected at the end of the Transition Period.
Some examples are:
- government agencies
- companies
- citizens
The readiness notices are about different subjects.
Some Notices still need to be checked.
Examples of subjects are:
- customs duties
- the right to data privacy
- industrial products
- chemicals
The readiness notices are helpful in preparing for the end of the Transition Period.
The EU wants a good working relationship with the UK.
The EU hopes for a good partnership with the UK.
The Policy Statement by the EU and the UK should help.
It should help the EU and the UK to make a good agreement.
But the EU wants to be prepared for all possible situations.
It wants to be prepared in case they do not make an agreement.
How have discussions on the new relationship progressed?
The Policy Statement by the EU and the UK has two main topics:
- the economy
- security
The EU and the UK want to begin a partnership in both these areas.
The EU and the UK want to work together successfully in these areas.
All 27 EU countries made an agreement on 25 February 2020.
They agreed on a negotiating mandate for the European Commission.
Negotiating mandate means:
- having the right to agree things
- and to discuss things
- and also to negotiate things.
Negotiate means to try to make an agreement by discussing things.
The aim of the agreement is to get things done.
The European Commission is made up of people.
These people represent the EU.
They speak for the EU.
They stand up for EU interests in negotiations.
Negotiations are held on the relationship between the EU and the UK.
The European Commission has a chief negotiator.
His name is Michel Barnier.
Michel Barnier wrote a report in March 2020.
The report is about the future partnership with the UK.
If you want to learn more about this,
go to the website of the task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom.
A task force is a group that works on one special task.
The task force is working on the partnership with the UK.
The COVID-19 crisis has made negotiations difficult.
The EU and the UK have had lots of negotiations since March 2020 all the same.
The joint Policy Statement is very important for the EU in the negotiations.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the same opinion.
This makes negotiations very difficult.
There have been 7 rounds of negotiations so far.
The EU and the UK do not have the same opinion about some subjects.
The difficult subjects are:
- fair competition
- fisheries
- horizontal governance.
Horizontal governance is when organisations work through networks. Decisions are made by groups and not by people at the top of an organisation. - the Court of Justice of the European Union
- mobility
There will be two more rounds of negotiations.
They are planned for the start of October 2020.
The chief negotiators also speak to each other once a week.
David Frost is the chief negotiator for the UK.
There is not much time left to make an agreement.
Because the Council of the European Union still needs to vote on an agreement.
Why is the Withdrawal Agreement important?
Nothing has really changed since 1 February 2020.
Because the most important things were already decided in the Withdrawal Agreement.
Freedom of movement in the EU is still allowed during the Transition Period.
Freedom of movement in the EU means the right to:
- live
- work
- study
- and have social security protection in the EU or in the UK.
The UK no longer has the right to take part in making EU policy decisions.
UK citizens cannot vote in EU elections any more.
They also cannot take part in EU citizens’ initiatives.
But some UK citizens live in EU countries.
And some EU citizens live in the UK
The rights of these people are protected.
So they can still
- live
- work
- study
- have social security protection in the country where they live.
They must register to have these rights.
There will soon be a law for this.
The law will come into effect shortly before the end of the Transition Period.
If you want to learn more about this,
go to the website of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community.
After the end of the Transition Period, what will happen if:
- UK citizens want to leave the UK to live, work or study in an EU country?
- Or if EU citizens want to live, work or study in the UK?
These things will not be decided until after the Transition Period.
They will be decided in the negotiations between the EU and the UK.
There is a special rule in the Withdrawal Agreement.
The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will stay open.
That is good for the Single Market.
Because there will be no checks at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland stays part of the British customs area.
But the rule of the EU Single Market still applies there.
So do the rules for EU customs.
There will only be checks in Northern Ireland at the entry points to the island of Ireland.
The open border also protects peace in Ireland.
An agreement was made about this in 1998.
It is called the Good Friday Agreement.
The Withdrawal Agreement also makes rules about the money that the UK has to pay the EU.
There is also a rule in the Withdrawal Agreement about committees.
There will be a joint committee.
A committee is a group of people who discuss a subject together.
Sometimes they make decisions together.
There will also be specialist committees.
These committees will discuss specialist subjects.
And sometimes they will make decisions about specialist subjects.
The committees discuss how to carry out the Withdrawal Agreement.
Sometimes people ask questions about rules in the Withdrawal Agreement.
The committees have to explain and answer the questions.
The committees also have to agree on their answers.
That is the job of the people in the committees.
It is very important that people obey the rules in the Withdrawal Agreement.
Then people will trust the negotiators during negotiations between the EU and the UK.
Where can you find more information?
The European Commission has its own website.
You can find answers to these questions there:
- What are the Common Provisions in the Withdrawal Agreement?
- The Common Provisions are the standard conditions.
- What rules are there for citizens’ rights?
- What rules were agreed for the separation from the EU?
- How does the Withdrawal Agreement work now?
- What rules are there on deciding questions about money?
- What do the rules say about the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland?