Full Brexit in January 2021 as EU sets transition deadline

[webfact]

Full Brexit in January 2021 as EU sets transition deadline

By Alastair Macdonald and Robert-Jan Bartunek

 

The British flag flies next to European flags at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium December 8, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman

 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union wants a transition period after Brexit to end no later than the last day of 2020, according to the European Commission's negotiating directives agreed on Wednesday.

 

That date, coinciding with the end of the EU's seven-year budget period and 21 months after Britain departs the EU, had long been expected as the target end point of the transition.

 

But this was the first official confirmation that it is the goal of the Union's negotiators.

 

British Prime Minister Theresa May had sought a transition lasting around two years. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, speaking at a news conference after the EU executive had agreed the terms, said the 2020 deadline was logical and would avoid complications in the next 2021-2027 EU budget period.

 

The four pages of new directives for Barnier were in line with guidelines issued by EU leaders at a summit on Friday and will form the basis of talks on the transition that he hopes to start next month. He has said in the past he hopes a free trade pact could be ready to take effect in January 2021.

 

The directives spell out that Britain will effectively remain in EU institutions, bound by all their rules including new ones, while not having a say in their making.

 

The EU will also offer Britain a non-voting place at some meetings where decisions may affect specific issues and will set up special arrangements for a UK role in setting annual EU fishing quotas.

 

The directives also spell out more clearly that EU treaties with other countries and international organisations will no longer apply to Britain during the transition period.

 

However, the document adds: "Where it is in the interest of the Union, the Union may consider whether and how arrangements can be agreed that would maintain the effects of the agreements as regards the United Kingdom during the transition period."

 

This has been important to Britain since it could mean that it no longer benefits automatically from free trade agreements which the EU has with, say, Canada or South Korea, while it would still have to apply EU trade policy -- for example collecting EU customs duty at UK ports.

 

Barnier said he understood that Britain was working with other countries to try to retain the advantages of some of the nearly 750 international agreements to which London is currently party as an EU member.

 

FINANCIAL SERVICES

 

Among elements spelled out more in the directives than in the leaders' guidelines last week was a repetition of a previously agreed EU position that everything applying to Brexit for Britain would also apply to other British territories.

 

Brussels has said the Spanish government must agree any future arrangements with Britain that affect the British territory of Gibraltar on Spain's southern coast.

 

Asked about his previously expressed view that a future trade deal may offer little automatic access for the City of London's financial services firms to the EU market, Barnier repeated that free access would be unprecedented as far as he was aware.

 

"I remind you that I'm not aware of any free-trade deal in the past between the European Union and third countries that would have allowed privileged access for financial services," he told a news conference.

 

British negotiators have said Britain's size and proximity give it the leverage to negotiate a more ambitious relationship with the EU than any other state.

 

During the transition, Britain will maintain access to the European single market, Barnier added. "Britain will keep all the benefits, but also all the obligations of the single market, the customs union and the common policies," he said, ruling out "a la carte" terms.

 

Barnier welcomed agreements made earlier this month on issues such as the Irish border, citizens' rights and the divorce settlement.

 

"We are not at the end of the road," he said. "But it is an important stage of this road towards an orderly withdrawal rather than a disorderly one."

 

(Additional reporting by Robin Emmott and Philip Blenkinsop; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by John Stonestreet)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-12-21

[Enoon]

 

Unless they decide that another date would be OK.

 

Or the Gov, Parliament and the EU decide that it's all been an unfortunate mistake and probably best to forget about the whole thing.

 

"But the people said, but the people, the people, people........."

 

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Enoon

[terryw]

1 hour ago, Enoon said:

 

Unless they decide that another date would be OK.

 

Or the Gov, Parliament and the EU decide that it's all been an unfortunate mistake and probably best to forget about the whole thing.

 

"But the people said, but the people, the people, people........."

 

 

The EU will have to make a deal on services. As reportedly said by Mark Carney yesterday, 'London is the Bank of Europe'.

 

[mfd101]

1 hour ago, terryw said:

The EU will have to make a deal on services. As reportedly said by Mark Carney yesterday, 'London is the Bank of Europe'.

 

Said the optimist (at least from a British point of view).

 

Um, no, not after January 2021, said the optimist (from a European point of view).

 

And the probability? More the latter than the former, I should think.

[tomacht8]

2 hours ago, terryw said:

The EU will have to make a deal on services. As reportedly said by Mark Carney yesterday, 'London is the Bank of Europe'.

 

 

"I remind you that I'm not aware of any free-trade deal in the past between the European Union and third countries that would have allowed privileged access for financial services," he told a news conference.

 

That means translated: no

Everyone can calculate the expected consequences for the bank-, insurance- and financial systems.

[dunroaming]

I think we are all analysing every word from everyone involved in these Brexit "negotiations" and we are all looking for some glimmer of what will actually be agreed in the end.  I like Carney as the governor of the Bank of England but his ability to predict is anything but reliable.

 

Quite understandably on the British side politicians in government are always looking to put a positive spin on things and that is absolutely how it should be as long as it isn't all pie in the sky and based on facts.

 

The EU have laid out their position on the transition period and the UK needs to react with any counter proposals.

[BuaBS]

2021 ? Should have been last year !

[adammike]

29 minutes ago, BuaBS said:

2021 ? Should have been last year !

Oh God this thread is going on till then!

[mfd101]

If the first round [almost sort of completed with the Irish border in the too-hard basket] is anything to go by, the outcomes will be about 80% British backdown & 20% European sweetness 'n light.

 

Oh well, that's life. Can't win em all. Never mind, look on the bright side. You could always emigrate to Thailand and learn to smile.

[dunroaming]

2 hours ago, adammike said:

Oh God this thread is going on till then!

There will be no cabinet left by then and I suspect most of the posters on brexit will have committed Hari-Kari!