Political Declaration

The Political Declaration on future relations establishes the framework under which negotiations must be carried out to reach an agreement that must govern relations between the EU and the United Kingdom once the transition period provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement finalises.

This document, adopted by the European Council (Article 50) on 17 October 2018, addresses different areas, such as economic cooperation, relations on judicial matters and security, institutional cooperation and other actions that must be adopted in the future.

It is worth noting that following the negotiations in the autumn of 2019, the text of the Political Declaration on future relations includes changes with respect to its original version of 2018.

Economic and trade relations: the UK wants an ambitious Free Trade Agreement to constitute the core of future relations with the European Union. The UK wants greater regulatory autonomy in this new relationship.

Specific provisions in different areas, including:

A future scheme for the mobility of people, given that the UK has decided to put an end to the principle of free movement of people between the UK and the EU.
Specific provisions on transport, such as a Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement, which includes access to market and investments.
Specific provisions on fisheries matters. These clauses are provided within the general framework of economic cooperation and are tied to access to the market of fisheries products.

Cooperation on security matters through reciprocal and flexible collaboration at a police and judicial level, which allows for the exchange and protection of classified and sensitive information.

Institutional cooperation based on a global framework of dialogue at Heads of State and Government, ministerial, technical and parliamentary levels.

Future process that underscores the need to table negotiations on future relations as soon as possible, specifying the actions to be adopted to that end by both parties, before and after the withdrawal.

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