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The Brexit trade and security deal, finalized on Christmas Eve, is 2,000 pages long, including annexes. It will enter into force once approved by both parties.
The devil of what has been agreed will be in the details, and will be studied in detail in the coming days.
These are the main agreements, at a glance.
Rates
Fee and quota-free access to one of the world’s largest markets is the backbone of the Brexit deal and goes beyond the EU’s agreements with Canada or Japan.
Commerce
There will be mutual recognition of trusted merchant programs. This means that UK producers will need to comply with UK and EU standards.
Professional qualifications
There will be no more automatic recognition for doctors, nurses, architects, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, engineers. Now they will have to seek recognition in the member state in which they wish to practice.
Mobility – freedom of movement
UK citizens no longer have the freedom to work, study, start a business or live in the EU. Visas will be required for stays longer than 90 days. Coordinating some social security benefits, such as old-age pensions and health care, will make working abroad easier and will not lose any pre-existing accumulation of national insurance contributions.
Fishing
The UK will abandon the Common Fisheries Policy.
The annual turnover of EU fishing vessels in British waters is around € 650 million, compared to € 850 million for the UK-flagged fleet. The new quotas that reduce the EU’s share by 25% will be phased in over five and a half years. A quarter of EU catches by value (€ 162.5 million per year) will be “repatriated” to UK-flagged vessels at the end of that period. After that, the two sides will hold annual negotiations.
EU vessels fishing between six and 12 nautical miles from the British coast will be able to continue during the transition, but access will be negotiated annually after that. There is a three month notice to close access. If either party is denied access, the other may seek compensation or apply fees in a proportionate manner.
State aid
The EU had insisted that the UK adhere to its state aid rules. Brussels was concerned that the UK government would try to find a competitive advantage through subsidies. The UK successfully killed off this idea. The UK will establish its own subsidy scheme. The new national executing agency can make decisions on whether state aid has distorted trade once the grant is awarded. This is an important concession from the EU.
However, the UK will need to ensure that its subsidies scheme 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 national executing agency has not respected the shared principles.
Standards or level playing field
Both parties have agreed on a minimum level of environmental, social and labor standards below which neither of them should go.
Ursula von der Leyen said there would be a review after four years to ensure the playing field is working.
One of the biggest sticking points in the talks was the EU’s insistence on an “evolution clause” or “equivalence mechanism,” as Downing Street called it.
This would have allowed the EU to unilaterally apply tariffs to UK products should the rules diverge over time. If one side improved its rule book, the other would have to follow it or face the consequences.
In the end, a compromise was reached. It is more like the UK’s goal than Brussels’s. The British government had simply wanted a reflective point in the future where the two sides could discuss improving the basic minimum below which neither of them could go.
The agreement provides for a review and “rebalancing” clause, which allows either party to initiate a formal review of the economic parts of the agreement, including the minimum level of standards.
If either party is late in agreeing to a new floor for the standards, the other may apply fees subject to approval by an independent arbitration panel.
Rules of origin
This determines which goods count as “made in Great Britain”.
The UK persuaded Brussels that EU materials and processing should be counted as British inputs when finished goods are exported to the European market.
Therefore, a product would only attract tariffs under the agreement if more than 40% of its pre-finished value was not of British origin or from a non-EU country such as Japan.
The UK failed to secure diagonal accumulation, which would include parts of countries like Japan and Turkey, with whom the UK and the EU have a trade agreement, to be counted as British inputs.
Conflict resolution
This was one of the most difficult areas of negotiation, as it will establish solutions for trade disputes for decades to come. Angela Merkel has said that disagreement over an arbitration mechanism was the biggest obstacle to an agreement.
The EU was concerned that the UK could, over time and depending on which government was in power, deviate so much from EU standards that it could carve out a significant competitive advantage and become a ‘Singapore on the Thames’.
If either party feels that trade is being distorted, they can take action after consultation. An arbitration panel would meet within 30 days and resolve. If the measures were subsequently found to be erroneous or excessive, the aggrieved party could take compensatory measures.
It also appears that there will be some kind of global governance committee between the UK and the EU that will have sub-committees to implement and enforce the treaty.
Sciences
The UK will continue to participate in the EU’s flagship € 80 billion Horizon Europe program as a paying associate member for seven years. It will also continue in Copernicus and Euratom.
Erasmus
The UK is out of the university exchange program, resisting the EU’s insistence that to become an associate member it would have to commit to a seven-year payment plan.
The Irish government confirmed on Thursday that Northern Ireland students can continue to access Eramus as part of its promise to ensure that Irish citizens of the region “never fall behind” their fellow citizens south of the border. Northern Ireland citizens can also benefit from a plan to replace the Iris government funded European Health Insurance Card (TSE).
Security and law enforcement
Cross-border police investigations and law enforcement may continue, with agreements that the UK can remain in key exchange programs, but not all.
The UK will no longer be part of the European arrest warrant system.
The UK will also not be a full member of Europol or Eurojust. There will be “continued cooperation between the UK, Europol and Eurojust” with “strong cooperation between the national police and judicial authorities”.
The UK will maintain an “access mechanism” to the Schengen Information System (SIS II), an automated database that shares police alerts on stolen property and missing persons.
There has also been an agreement for the continued joint use of passenger name records, which provides live data on the movement of air and ferry passengers, a key tool in the fight against terrorism, and the Prüm database of footprints. fingerprints, DNA and car registration plates of suspects.
TV services
France managed to keep the audiovisual sector out of the deal, which was a serious blow to the UK, which is home to around 1,400 stations, around 30% of all channels in the EU.
Britain’s thriving television and video-on-demand service providers will no longer be able to offer pan-European services to European viewers unless they relocate part of their business to an EU member state.
Traveling to the EU for paid work
Staff seconded to the EU for work purposes can stay up to three years if they are managers and specialists and up to one year for trainees. Those with short-term businesses will need a work permit and can stay for a period of up to 90 days in any 12-month period.
Experts warned that British business travelers and posted workers, those who stay in the EU to work for a limited period of time, face fines unless they obtain prior authorization once the UK leaves the single market.
Under the agreement, reciprocal arrangements have been made “to facilitate short-term business travel and the temporary secondment of highly qualified employees.”
Transport
Aviation and transport will continue as before, and passenger and cargo aircraft will still be able to fly and land in the EU, including stopover flights from Heathrow and other parts of the UK that originated outside the UK. Carriers will also be able to continue driving without special permits assigned in limited quantities to countries outside the EU. This is a relief for the logistics industry, which feared that drivers would be blocked in significant numbers.
The deal depended on the UK remaining a member of the Common European Aviation Area.
However, the planes will continue to fly in a temporary agreement, which will need to be urgently renegotiated.
