Brexit negotiations
Between 2017 and 2019, representatives of the United Kingdom and the European Union negotiated the terms of Brexit, the UK's planned withdrawal from membership of the EU. These negotiations arose following the decision of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, following the UK's EU membership referendum on 23 June 2016.
This article is about negotiations for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, 2017–2019. For the negotiations in 2020 towards a UK/EU trade agreement, see Trade negotiation between the UK and the EU.Type
- Withdrawal agreement
- Transitional agreement
- Trade agreement
Ratification by the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Donald Tusk
(Council President)- Jean-Claude Juncker
(Commission President) - Michel Barnier
(European Chief Negotiator) 
Theresa May
(Prime Minister) (November 2018 draft)- Boris Johnson
(Prime Minister) (October 2019 draft) - Olly Robbins[a]
(Prime Minister's Europe Adviser)[1] (2018 draft) - David Frost
(Prime Minister's Europe Adviser) (2019 draft) - Steve Barclay (DExEU Secretary of State)[b]
The negotiating period began on 29 March 2017, when the United Kingdom served its withdrawal notice under Article 50. The withdrawal was then planned to occur on 29 March 2019, two years after the date of notification, as specified by Article 50.
Negotiations formally opened on 19 June 2017, when David Davis, the UK's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, met Michel Barnier, the EU's Chief Negotiator.[2] They began to discuss a withdrawal agreement, including terms of a transitional period and an outline of the objectives for a future UK–EU relationship.
In March and April 2019, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May and the European Council agreed to move the date of the UK's departure to 31 October 2019.[3][4]
May resigned as leader of the ruling Conservative Party on 7 June 2019,[5] and on 23 July, Boris Johnson was elected as her successor.[6] The Johnson ministry and EU agreed to resume regular meetings to discuss the withdrawal agreement on 28 August 2019,[7] but the UK declared a pre-condition that the Irish backstop must be scrapped, which the EU said it wouldn't accept.[8][9]
In October 2019, following bilateral talks between Johnson and Leo Varadkar (his Irish counterpart),[10] the UK and EU agreed to a revised deal, which replaced the backstop. In the new Northern Ireland protocol, the whole of the UK comes out of the EU Customs Union as a single customs territory. Northern Ireland will be included in any future UK trade deals, but it remains an entry point into the EU Customs Union, creating a de facto customs border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Following the 2019 UK general election, which returned a Conservative majority, the Withdrawal Agreement Bill and its programme motion passed first reading in the House of Commons.
The agreement was ratified by the UK, on 23 January 2020,[11] and by the EU on 29 January 2020,[12] confirming that a withdrawal agreement was in place when, as planned, the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020.
The withdrawal was followed by trade negotiation between the UK and the EU, which resulted in the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), signed on 30 December 2020.
The concept of European Court of Justice competence creates complications. Some pro-Brexiteers believe the Court of Justice might be completely removed from the British landscape. Various other opinions consider that the Court of Justice or some equivalent should be able to rule on remaining issues after Brexit (for instance between a European and a British stakeholder), at least in respect of the TEU (Treaty on European Union), European Union citizens, or access to the European Single Market.[102]
After the 2017 negotiations, in February 2018 the European Commission Draft Withdrawal Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community[103] consider for instance that:
"No-deal" as a negotiating position [edit]
A No-deal Brexit would involve the United Kingdom leaving the European Union without any Free Trade Agreement and relying on the trading rules set by the World Trade Organization.[130] The British government has consistently said it will aim for the "best possible deal" but that "no deal is better than a bad deal". This position was restated in the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2017 general election.[131] In July 2017, Michel Barnier said that "a fair deal is better than no deal", because "In the case of Brexit, 'no deal is a return to a distant past".[132]
In June 2017, a Parliamentary inquiry concluded that "the possibility of 'no deal is real enough to justify planning for it. The Government has produced no evidence, either to this inquiry or in its White Paper, to indicate that it is giving the possibility of 'no deal' the level of consideration that it deserves, or is contemplating any serious contingency planning. This is all the more urgent if the Government is serious in its assertion that it will walk away from a 'bad deal."[133]
In September 2017, the BBC reported that there was little evidence of British government preparations for a "No Deal" scenario: "our government is not behaving like it is really preparing for No Deal – and the EU27 can surely see it."[134]