BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union and the United Kingdom announced on Saturday the vast agreement that will govern future trade and co-operation between them on January 1, establishing relations between the 27-nation bloc and its former member and neighboring country again, but much more removed.
EU ambassadors and parliamentarians on both sides of the English Channel will now examine the “EU-UK Cooperation and Trade Agreement”. which contains over 1,240 pages of text. EU envoys are expected to meet on Monday to discuss the document, which has been drawn up over nine intense months of talks.
Businesses, so long left in the dark about what is available to them, will also try to understand its implications.
Most importantly, the current agreement ensures that the UK can continue to trade in goods with the largest trading bloc in the world without tariffs or quotas, after the UK is completely free of the EU. He ceased to be an official member on 31 January this year and is a few days away from the end of the outgoing transition period.
But other barriers will be raised, as the UK loses the type of access to a huge market that only members can guarantee. These range from access to fishing waters to energy markets and include everyday connections that are so important to citizens, such as travel arrangements and education exchanges.
EU member states are expected to approve the agreement next week. British lawmakers could vote on Wednesday. But even if it approves it, the text would only enter into force provisionally on New Year’s Day, because the European Parliament must also have its say.
EU lawmakers said last weekend that there was simply not enough time to properly examine the text before the deadline and would debate and vote on the document in January and February if the approval process went smoothly.
Despite the agreement, unanswered questions remain in many areas, including security co-operation – with the UK losing access to real-time information in some EU law enforcement databases – and access to the EU market for huge UK financial services sector.
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