BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union and the United Kingdom announced on Saturday the vast agreement that should govern future trade and cooperation between them as of January 1, establishing the 27-nation bloc’s relations with its former member and neighbor on a new basis, but much more distant.
EU ambassadors and legislators on both sides of the English Channel will now study the “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” which contains more than 1,240 pages of text. EU envoys are due to meet on Monday to discuss the document, drawn up over nine intense months of negotiations.
Companies, so long left in the dark about what is in store for them, will also try to understand its implications.
Most importantly, the agreement as it stands ensures that Britain can continue to trade goods with the largest trading bloc in the world without tariffs or quotas, after the United Kingdom has completely freed itself from the EU. He ceased to be an official member on January 31 this year and is a few days from the end of an outgoing transition period.
But other barriers will be raised as the United Kingdom 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 daily links as important to citizens as travel and educational exchanges.
EU member countries are expected to endorse the agreement over the next week. British lawmakers can vote on Wednesday. But even if they approve it, the text would only enter into force provisionally on New Year’s Day, since the European Parliament must also give its word.
EU lawmakers said last weekend that there simply was not enough time to properly examine the text before the deadline, and they will debate and vote on the document in January and February, if the approval process goes well.
Despite the agreement, unanswered questions remain in many areas, including security cooperation – with the UK about to lose access to real-time information in some EU law enforcement databases – and access to the EU market for the Britain’s huge financial services sector.
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