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Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU
(about 1 month later)
The UK stopped being a member of the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020, but that's the not end of the Brexit story. Over the summer, UK and EU officials will try to agree what the future relationship will eventually look like. The UK is no longer a member of the European Union (EU), but that's not the end of the Brexit story.
For those not following every twist and turn, this is what you need to know. UK and EU officials have been spending the summer trying to agree what the future relationship will be.
What is Brexit? Why is Brexit still being talked about?
Brexit - British exit - refers to the UK leaving the EU. Even though Brexit happened more than six months ago, both sides still need to work out the rules for their new relationship.
A public vote (known as a referendum) was held in June 2016, when 17.4 million people opted for Brexit. This gave the Leave side 52%, compared with 48% for Remain. This includes everything from trade, immigration, aviation, security and access to fishing waters.
What is the European Union? This has to be negotiated and signed off by the EU and UK Parliaments by the end of the year.
The EU is an economic and political union involving 27 European countries. It allows free trade, which means goods can move between member countries without any checks or extra charges. The EU also allows free movement of people, to live and work in whichever country they choose. Immediately after Brexit day - on 31 January - the UK went into a transition period with the EU. This was to give both sides breathing space to agree the new arrangements.
The UK joined in 1973 (when it was known as the European Economic Community) and became the first member state to leave. During transition the UK is still following EU rules and trading in the same way as before. However, the UK is no longer part of the EU's political institutions - so there are now no British MEPs in the European Parliament.
What happened after Brexit day? This transition period will last until 31 December 2020, when the new EU-UK relationship will begin. The deadline for extending the transition has now passed.
The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020 and immediately entered into an 11-month transition period. What if there is no trade deal by 31 December?
During this period, the UK will continue to follow all of the EU's rules and its trading relationship will remain the same. However, it is no longer part of the EU's political institutions - so there there are no longer any British MEPs in the European Parliament. When the transition period ends, the UK will automatically drop out of the EU's main trading arrangements - the single market and the customs union.
The transition will end on 31 December 2020. The single market means that countries share the same rules on product standards and access to services, whereas the customs union is an agreement between EU countries not to charge taxes on each other's goods.
What needs to be agreed during the transition? If a new trade deal is not ready to replace these arrangements, then tariffs (taxes) and full border checks would be applied to UK goods travelling to the EU. Tariffs would make UK goods more expensive and harder to sell in the EU, while full border checks could cause long delays at ports.
The transition gives both sides some time to decide the terms of the future UK-EU relationship. The broad aims were set out in a 27-page document called the political declaration. Failure to reach a deal would also result in the UK service industry losing its guaranteed access to the EU. This would affect everyone from bankers and lawyers, to musicians and chefs.
Talks started in March and will intensify over the summer, with a new free trade agreement being the priority. Any UK-EU trade deal would aim to cover both goods and services. However, even if a trade deal is reached before the end of the year, it won't eliminate all checks - so UK businesses will need to prepare.
This is needed because the UK will leave the single market and customs union at the end of the transition. A free trade agreement will allow UK goods to move around the EU without extra charges and keep other barriers (like checks) to a minimum. But didn't the UK leave the EU with a deal?
If an agreement cannot be reached by 31 December, then tariffs (taxes) and full border checks will be applied to UK goods travelling to the EU. Throughout the UK's 2019 election campaign, Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked about having an "oven-ready" Brexit deal.
Aside from trade, many other aspects of the future UK-EU relationship will also need to be decided during the transition. For example: At the time, the UK had only negotiated the withdrawal agreement - the Brexit deal which set out the process of how the UK would leave. The terms of the future relationship were always intended to be negotiated after Brexit day itself.
What is the Brexit deal? Had the UK left the EU without a withdrawal agreement there would have been no transition period and no time to negotiate the new relationship - known as a no-deal Brexit.
The transition period and other aspects of the UK's departure were agreed in a deal called the withdrawal agreement. However, if any aspects of the UK-EU future relationship are not ready by the end of the transition (such as trade, fishing or security) then no-deal contingency plans will be required.
Most of that was negotiated by Theresa May's government. But after Boris Johnson replaced her as prime minister in July 2019, he negotiated some changes to it.
Under Mr Johnson's deal, a customs border will effectively be created between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain will be subject to checks and will have to pay EU import taxes (known as tariffs).
These would be refunded if goods remain in Northern Ireland (ie are not moved to the Republic of Ireland).
The rest of the withdrawal agreement is largely unchanged from the one negotiated by Mrs May. This includes:
Why did Brexit take so long?Why did Brexit take so long?
Brexit was originally meant to happen on 29 March 2019, but the deadline was delayed twice after MPs rejected the deal negotiated by then prime minister Mrs May. Brexit was originally meant to happen on 29 March 2019. However, finding a way to avoid checks along the Irish border became one of the major sticking points.
Her deal included an arrangement known as the Irish "backstop". If it had been needed, this would have kept the UK in a very close relationship with the EU in order to avoid checks along the Irish border. Theresa May, the prime minister at the time, came up with an arrangement known as the Irish "backstop". If it had been needed, the backstop would have kept the UK in a very close relationship with the EU so that checks would not have been necessary.
However, the backstop proved unacceptable to many Conservative MPs who feared the UK would be trapped in it indefinitely.However, the backstop proved unacceptable to many Conservative MPs who feared the UK would be trapped in it indefinitely.
After MPs voted down the deal for a third time, Mrs May resigned. After MPs rejected Mrs May's deal, the Brexit deadline had to be delayed twice.
Mr Johnson needed a Brexit extension of his own after MPs failed to get the revised deal passed into law. Mrs May then resigned as PM on 24 July 2019 after MPs voted down the deal for a third time.
This led to the new deadline of 31 January 2020. Mr Johnson - who replaced Mrs May - set about making changes to the Brexit deal. Mr Johnson scrapped the Irish backstop and replaced it with new custom arrangements between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Mr Johnson then called an early general election, to which MPs agreed. The new arrangement will mean some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain will be subject to checks and will have to pay EU taxes. These would be refunded if goods remain in Northern Ireland (ie are not moved to the Republic of Ireland).
After securing these changes to the Brexit deal, Mr Johnson then called an early general election, which MPs agreed to.
The election, which happened on 12 December 2019, resulted in a Conservative majority of 80.The election, which happened on 12 December 2019, resulted in a Conservative majority of 80.
With a sizeable majority in Parliament, it proved straightforward to pass the Brexit legislation, allowing the UK to leave the EU nearly four years after the referendum first took place.With a sizeable majority in Parliament, it proved straightforward to pass the Brexit legislation, allowing the UK to leave the EU nearly four years after the referendum first took place.
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