Future relationship
The EU and UK began negotiations on their future relationship, following the withdrawal agreement and based on the political declaration.
Following the conclusion of the withdrawal agreement, including the Irish Protocol, which agreed the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU, the EU and UK began negotiations on their future relationship. The negotiations are based on the political declaration, which was signed by the EU and the UK at the same time as the Withdrawal Agreement.
The political declaration outlined the areas that the two sides agreed should form part of their future partnership, with a free trade agreement at its centre. The UK and the EU tabled their negotiating positions in February 2020. They also agreed a number of deadlines and a process for adopting the terms of reference for each round of negotiations.
Alongside the negotiations on the future partnership, the EU and the UK have been implementing the terms of the withdrawal agreement. The two sides meet in a joint committee, which has several panels, each responsible for overseeing part of the withdrawal agreement.
The EU and the UK have also undertaken preparations for the end of the transition period.
In some areas, since it is no longer a member state and has become in EU parlance a ‘third country’, the UK needs to inform the EU of the standards or rules that it has in place in certain areas.
Information on the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK and the EU
On the 24 December 2020, the UK and the EU reached an agreement on the future relationship: the Trade and cooperation Agreement (TCA) and two seperate agreements: the EU-UK Security of Information Agreement and the EU-UK Agreement for cooperation on the safe and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
- The European Commission webpage containing information and explanation on the TCA
- The UK Government webpage containing all information and explaination on the TCA
Published on the 19 January 2021, the Brexit & Beyond Report by the UK in a Changing Europe, is "a collection intended as a guide to the big questions confronting the UK in the years to come. Intentionally or not, Brexit, and the Brexit process have and will continue to have enormous implications for politics, economics and society in the UK, and their effects will be compounded by those of the pandemic". (Anand Menon, director, UKICE)
The collection gathers contributions from around 75 experts and is structured around 6 major chapters: Policy, Public Opinion, Politics, The Union, Government and Law, External Relations.
Our report Regulation After Brexit published in March 2021 explores key findings over twenty-six areas including how UK regulation has changed since the transition period ended on 31 December 2020. It looks at the UK’s readiness to assume regulatory responsibility from the EU, the extent the UK has diverged from EU policy, and the long-term prospects for UK alignment or divergence.
The EU-UK Relationship one year on from the end of the transition period
The UK in a Changing Europe published a report 'Doing things differently? Policy after Brexit' on 31 January 2021. It brings together a number experts in their respective fields to investigate how policy and policymaking have changed in a range of sectors.
Two blogs by the Negotiating the Future team give an overview of the new relationship and the ongoing development of the new relationship. 'Institutions and Governance of the EU-UK Relationship' provides an overview of the formal relationship between the EU and the UK and the institutional arrangements put in place by the UK and the EU to manage the new relationship.
Unfinished Business: The Trade and Cooperation Agreement
'Unfinished Business: The Trade and Cooperation Agreement' provides an overview of areas in which decisions or implementation are pending and those where there have been further extensions, just over one year since the entry into operation of the TCA.