Brexit: Britain has been out of the EU single market since midnight

Brexit: Britain has been out of the EU single market since midnight

Brexit is over: Britain has sealed the final break with the European Union and left the EU internal market and the customs union at midnight. «This is a great moment for this country. We have freedom in our hands and now it is up to us to make the most of it, ”Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in his New Year’s address to the British people. Britain can now do things differently, “and if necessary better than our friends in the EU.”

However, there were no big Brexit celebrations due to the crown. Johnson had announced that he would spend the historic hour with his family at his official residence in London’s Downing Street.

At the end of the year, the eleven-month transitional phase since leaving the EU ended, during which largely the same rules continued to apply. Now the financial divorce has been made.

The British Parliament had passed Johnson’s ratification act a few hours before the turn of the year. The Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, approved the law with her “Royal Consent”. On New Year’s Eve, the contract was officially published in the EU legal bulletin. A spokesman for the German presidency of the Council of the EU announced that it could be applied provisionally from 1 January 2021 as planned. “A deal was avoided, just in time,” he tweeted. On the EU side, there was not enough time for ratification in the European Parliament. It should continue in the spring.

Britain left the EU at the end of January 2020 after 47 years of membership. The trade and association agreement negotiated with the EU at the last minute is now aimed at avoiding a hard break. The most important point is that no customs duties or quantity restrictions will be applied in the trade of goods. In addition, the nearly 1,250-page contract regulates many other issues, including fisheries and cooperation in energy, transport, justice and police. The UK remains subject to European standards in several areas.

At the last minute there was also an agreement for the British overseas territory of Gibraltar on New Year’s Eve: Spain and Great Britain agreed that Gibraltar would join the Schengen area without border controls. This will prevent the border between Spain and Gibraltar at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula from becoming a waterproof external border for the EU as of January 1, 2021, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The general post-Brexit trade pact does not apply to Gibraltar. Instead, as a surprising consequence of Brexit, Gibraltar will now join Spain and the EU more closely. In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 96 percent of Gibraltar’s 33,000 residents voted to remain in the EU.

Despite the post-Brexit trade pact, there are now major changes on both sides of the English Channel. Moving will be more difficult and visa-free travel will also be limited in the future. In future, controls will be necessary at the borders because the rules have to be checked, even for agricultural products.

In the English Channel, once Brexit is finally complete, no further traffic chaos is expected in the first days of January. “I don’t think traffic will get stuck before the first week or two of January,” said John Keefe, head of Getlink, one of the Eurotunnel train operators between Britain and France, according to the BBC broadcaster. “This quiet initial phase allows everyone to prepare.”

Government circles also said quiet traffic was initially expected. Since the weekend is right after the New Year, the dreaded queues could only add up afterward. The first logistics companies declared that they would delay their trips and observe the situation first.

A repeat of the chaos that was observed before and during Christmas in the Kentish border region must be avoided at all costs. Thousands of long-distance drivers had to wait in their trucks for days because France unexpectedly closed the border and required a negative corona test from all travelers. The reason was the appearance of a new variant of coronavirus, possibly very contagious, which had been discovered in the south of England. (sda / dpa)