BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union and the United Kingdom announced on Saturday the comprehensive agreement that is likely to regulate future trade and cooperation between them from January 1, bringing the 27-country bloc’s relations with its former member state and neighbor to a new level. but much further away.
EU ambassadors and legislators on both sides of the English Channel will now consider the “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement”, containing more than 1,240 pages of text. EU envoys are expected to meet on Monday to discuss the document, which has been prepared over nine months of intensive talks.
Companies that have been left in the dark for so long about what lies ahead will also try to understand its implications.
Most importantly, the current deal will ensure that Britain can continue to trade in goods without tariffs or quotas with the world’s largest trading bloc, after the UK completely disengages from the EU. It is no longer an official member on January 31 of this year and is days away from the end of a transition period before departure.
But other barriers will be raised as the UK loses the kind of access to a huge market that only membership can guarantee. They range from access to fishing waters to energy markets, and include everyday links so important to citizens, such as travel arrangements and educational exchanges.
EU member states are expected to sign the agreement sometime next week. British lawmakers could vote on it on Wednesday. But even if they did approve it, the text would only provisionally enter into force on New Year’s Day, as the European Parliament also has to have its say.
EU lawmakers said last weekend that there simply was not enough time to properly review the text before the deadline, and that they will debate and vote on the document in January and February if the approval process goes smoothly.
Despite the deal, unanswered questions remain in many areas, including security cooperation – where the UK will lose access to real-time information in some EU law enforcement databases – and access to the EU market for Britain’s massive financial services sector.
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