Brexit withdrawal agreement
The Brexit withdrawal agreement, officially titled Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, is a treaty between the European Union, Euratom, and the United Kingdom, signed on 24 January 2020, setting the terms of the withdrawal of the UK from the EU and Euratom. The text of the treaty was published on 17 October 2019, and is a renegotiated version of an agreement published in November 2018. The earlier version of the withdrawal agreement was rejected by the House of Commons on three occasions, leading to the resignation of Theresa May as Prime Minister and the appointment of Boris Johnson as the new prime minister on 24 July 2019.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom gave its approval to the agreement on 23 January 2020 and the UK government deposited Britain's instrument of ratification on 29 January 2020. The agreement was ratified by the Council of the European Union on 30 January 2020, following the consent of the European Parliament on 29 January 2020. The United Kingdom's withdrawal from the Union took effect on 11 p.m. GMT on 31 January 2020, and at that moment the Withdrawal Agreement entered into force, as per its article 185.
The Agreement covers such matters as money, citizens' rights, border arrangements and dispute resolution. It also contains a transition period and an outline of the future relationship between the UK and the EU. Published on 14 November 2018, it was a result of the Brexit negotiations. The agreement was endorsed by the leaders of the 27 remaining EU countries and the British Government led by Prime Minister Theresa May, but faced opposition in the British parliament, whose approval was necessary for ratification. Approval by the European Parliament would also have been required. On 15 January 2019, the House of Commons rejected the withdrawal agreement by a vote of 432 to 202. The Commons rejected the agreement again on 12 March 2019, on a vote of 391 to 242, and rejected a third time of 29 March 2019 by 344 votes to 286. On 22 October 2019 the revised withdrawal agreement negotiated by Boris Johnson's government cleared the first stage in Parliament, but Johnson paused the legislative process when the accelerated programme for approval failed to achieve the necessary support, and announced his intention to call a general election. On 23 January 2020, Parliament ratified the agreement by passing the Withdrawal Agreement Act; on 29 January 2020, the European Parliament gave its consent to the withdrawal agreement. It was subsequently concluded by the Council of the European Union on 30 January 2020.
The withdrawal agreement, in Part Four, provided for a transition or implementation period until 00:00 Central European Time on 1 January 2021 , during which time the UK remained in the single market, in order to ensure frictionless trade until a long-term relationship was agreed. If no agreement was reached by this date, then the UK would have left the single market without a trade deal on 1 January 2021. Closely connected to the withdrawal agreement is a non-binding political declaration on the future EU–UK relationship.
Background
2015 United Kingdom general election and 2016 Brexit referendum
In the Conservative Party's manifesto for the United Kingdom general election in May 2015, the party promised an EU referendum by the end of 2017.The referendum, held on 23 June 2016, resulted in a 51.9% to 48.1% majority vote for leaving the European Union.
The 2018 draft
The proposed 2018 withdrawal agreement, which ran to 599 pages, covered the following main areas:- Money, particularly the division of assets and liabilities, and payment of any debt outstanding
- Citizens rights, both of British citizens in EU countries and vice versa
- Border arrangements and customs, particularly along the border between the UK and the EU on the island of Ireland
- The law, and the mechanisms for resolving disputes, currently vested with the European Court of Justice
On the Irish border question, the Irish backstop was appended to the agreement. This set out a fall-back position should effective alternative arrangements fail to be agreed. Its purpose was to avoid a hard border coming into place before the end of the transition period, with the UK shadowing the EU's Common external tariff and Northern Ireland keeping in aspects of the Single Market.
The governance was to be through a Joint Committee with representatives of both the European Union and the British government. There was to be a number of specialised committees reporting to the Joint Committee.
The withdrawal agreement also includes provisions for the UK to leave the Convention Defining the Statute of the European Schools, with the UK bound by the Convention and the accompanying regulations on Accredited European Schools until the end of the last academic year of the transition period, i.e. the end of the spring semester of 2020–2021.
The more important elements of the draft agreement are these:
Common provisions
The Agreement assists the arrangements of withdrawing the UK from the European Union and Euratom, provides a clear definition for the territorial scope of the United Kingdom, and assures the legal liability of the Agreement. Additionally, it states that by the end of the transition period, the UK shall be denied access to "any network, any information system and any database established on the basis of Union law".Citizens' rights: general provisions
The Agreement defines and provides the personal scope of citizens, family members, frontier workers, host states, and nationals. Article 11 deals with continuity of residence and Article 12 discusses non-discrimination.Rights and obligations
British nationals and European Union citizens, family members who are British nationals or European Union citizens and family members who are neither of those two shall maintain the right to reside in the host State. The host State may not limit or condition the persons for obtaining, retaining or losing residence rights. Persons with valid documentation would not require entry and exit visas or equal formalities and would be permitted to leave or enter the host state without complications. In case the host State demands "family members who join the Union citizen or United Kingdom national after the end of the transition period to have an entry visa", the host State is required to grant necessary visas through an accelerated process in appropriate facilities free of charge. The Agreement further deals with the issuance of permanent residence permits during and after the transition period, as well as its restrictions. Moreover, it clarifies the rights of workers and self-employed individuals, and provides recognition and identification of professional qualifications.Coordination of social security systems
This title discusses special cases, administrative cooperation, legal adaptations and development of Union laws.Goods placed on the market
The Agreement defines the goods, services and the processes connected to them. It claims that any good or service that was lawfully placed in the market prior to the withdrawal from the Union may be further made available to the consumers in the UK or the Union States.Ongoing customs procedures
This title addresses the custom procedures of goods moving from the customs territory of the UK to the customs territory of the Union and vice versa. The processes that start before the end of the transition period "shall be treated as an intra-Union movement regarding importation and exportation licensing requirements in Union law". The Agreement also addresses the ending of temporary storage or customs procedures.Ongoing value added tax and excise duty matters
The VAT applies to goods that are exchanged between the Union and the UK. By way of derogation from previous Articles, the Title permits access to information systems that are necessary for the application or processing of the VAT.Annexes
There are ten annexes to the draft. The first is a protocol to maintain an open border between the EU and the UK on the island of Ireland. The second covers the arrangements for a common customs territory to operate between the EU and the UK, until a technical solution can be found that delivers both an open border and independent customs policies. The third covers operations of the joint customs territory. The fourth covers 'good governance in the area of taxation, environmental protection, labour and social standards, state aid, competition, and state-owned undertakings'. The fifth to eighth cover relevant provisions in EU law. The ninth and tenth details procedures arising from main sections of the draft.Northern Ireland Backstop
The Northern Ireland Protocol, known familiarly as the "Irish backstop", was an annex to the November 2018 draft agreement that described the provisions to prevent a hard border in Ireland after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. The Protocol included a safety-net provision to handle the circumstances where satisfactory alternative arrangements remain to come into operation at the end of the transition period.This created considerable difficulties for the government, particularly with the Democratic Unionist Party on which the government depended on for votes.
This draft was replaced in the 2019 negotiations by a new Northern Ireland Protocol.