Following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) on 1 February 2020, the Withdrawal Agreement came into force negotiated by the parties in the two previous years. In short, this agreement extended the application of the acquis communaitaire to the United Kingdom until 31 December 2020, although the United Kingdom remained outside of the EU and as such from its decision-making processes.
On 25 February 2020, the European Council adopted a negotiation "mandate" for the agreement on future relations between the EU and the UK, that spanned such areas as fishing, foreign policy, security and defence, public order and police and judicial cooperation on criminal matters, and the future trade relations between the two parties, and which also established the need to guarantee fair competition (level playing field) between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
During 2020, despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU and the UK negotiated the agreement that would govern relations between the two parties as from 1 January 2021.
In these negotiations, the EU negotiating team, headed up by Michel Barnier, advocated the principles contained in the "mandate" approved by the European Council in the nine rounds of negotiations that took place with the representatives of the UK. Contacts also existed at the very highest levels between the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Both in the event that an agreement was reached on future relations between the EU and the UK and in the event of an agreement not being reached, the end of the Transition Period on 31 December 2020 will mean very important changes that will affect citizens, companies and public authorities.
These contacts at different levels resulted in a Trade and Cooperation Agreement being reached between the United Kingdom and the European Union on 24 December 2020 to govern relations between the EU and the UK as from 1 January 2021.
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