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From fishing to finance, from mobility to competition. These are the main chapters of the post-Brexit free trade agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom reached on Christmas Eve after ten months of arduous negotiations. The European Commission today published the full text of the trade agreement: 1,246 pages establishing a complete picture of the future relationship as of January 1. The different chapters are detailed below.
* TARIFFS – The EU offers its former member state access to its market for 450 million consumers without customs duties or quotas on all goods that meet the appropriate rules of origin. This avoids a break in production chains, an undoubted success for the UK, which will, however, have to respect precise rules.
* LEVEL PLAYING FIELD – This opening, in fact, will be accompanied by strict conditions: companies throughout the Canal will have to comply with a certain number of rules in terms of environment, labor and tax legislation to avoid any dumping. Ursula von der Leyen said there will be a review after four years to ensure the playing field works.
* TRANSPORTATION – The continuity of air, land, rail and sea connections is guaranteed. The provisions will allow competition between operators to be exercised on an equal footing “so that the rights of passengers, workers and transport safety are not compromised.”
* TV SERVICES – France managed to keep the audiovisual sector out of the deal, a big blow to Britain, which is home to around 1,400 stations, around 30% of all EU channels. UK television and video on demand service providers will no longer be able to offer services to European viewers unless they transfer part of their business to an EU member state.
* FISHERIES – The Treaty establishes new quotas that reduce the percentage of EU catches in British waters by 25% valid for five and a half years. After that, there will be annual negotiations between the two parties.
* MOBILITY – From January you need a passport (without a visa) to cross borders and for stays of up to three months.
* STUDENTS – Great Britain exits the Erasmus exchange program between European students.
* STATE AID – The agreement ends the EU’s state aid scheme and allows London to introduce its own subsidy system. This is another important concession from the EU. However, the UK will need to ensure that its grant system respects the key principles set out in the Treaty. The agreement also allows both parties to take corrective action if there is evidence that the shared principles have not been respected.
* JUDICIAL COOPERATION – A new framework is established for police and judicial cooperation, “in particular to combat cross-border crime and terrorism.”
* SCIENCE – The UK may continue to participate in the Horizon Europe scientific research program, the Euratom program and the Copernicus space program.
* DISPUTES – If the EU and the UK do not comply with the treaty, a joint Council, a kind of dispute resolution mechanism, will ensure the correct application and interpretation of the agreement. London has (successfully) opposed the Court of Justice of the EU.
* FOREIGN AND SECURITY – Cooperation in foreign policy, foreign security and defense is not covered by the agreement. But regardless of this, London should not shy away from European positions on issues such as Iranian nuclear energy, Russia or the Middle East.
* WHO WINS AND WHO LOSES – According to analysts in Brussels it is still premature to draw an initial balance of the agreement, between lights and shadows or between who wins and who loses. We will have to wait for the Member States and MEPs to give their consent. The BBC notes that both sides of the Channel are portraying the agreement as a great victory. But beyond the triumphalist tones of Boris Johnson and the calmer tones of the European Commission who spoke of a “fair and balanced” agreement, the Finnish Minister for Europe, Tytti Tuppurainen, summed up the panorama better, saying that it was simply an exercise limit the damage.
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