Brexit news: 'Transition period' will end on December 31 2020, EU says

Pundits say Mr Barnier's plans would effectively keep Britain in the EU until 2020
EPA
Martin Coulter20 December 2017

The Brexit "transition period" will come to an end on December 31 2020, the European Union has said.

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier gave a speech in Brussels on Wednesday suggesting that the UK will keep its obligations and benefits until then.

The announcement came as British and European parties sought to move onto Phase Two of negotiations.

Pundits say such a plan will effectively keep Britain in the EU until the end of 2020.

Mrs May is said to have agreed a compromise with Tory rebels (Getty Images)
Bloomberg via Getty Images

He said: "There should be no 'cherry picking'...the United Kingdom will continue to participate in the customs union and the single market (with all four freedoms).

"The union acquis should continue to apply in full to and in the United Kingdom as if it were a member state.

"Any changes made to the acquis during this time should automatically apply to the United Kingdom.

"All existing union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures will apply, including the competence of the court of justice of the European Union.

"The United Kingdom will be a third country as of 30 March 2019. As a result, it will no longer be represented in union institutions, agencies, bodies and offices."

Mr Barnier stressed that this process would be subject to the UK's own "red lines" over its own Brexit timetable.

He also said Britain would not be "automatically covered" by all EU free trade agreements - 750 in total - such as Ceta, the Canada trade deal.

Theresa May is said to have compromised with Tory rebels over plans to fix the date of Brexit in law in a bid to avoid a second embarrassing Commons defeat.

Senior Government sources indicated that the Government would accept amendments that will allow ministers to amend the date.

Mr Barnier closed a press conference in Brussels by answering a question on what would happen "if the British parliament rejected the transition period".

He said he "does not like to speculate" and emphasised the need for political groups to build trust as talks continued.

The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Barnier's opening gambit was reminiscent of early Phase One talks in which Westminster clashed with Brussels for months but that "compromises are likely to be found".

Research by the University of Birmingham recently found that 12 per cent of UK output was at risk from a bad trade outcome, compared with just 2.6 per cent of European output.

“In economic terms the UK is in a very weak bargaining position," it said.

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