On Monday, January 4, European leaders signed the agreement and its provisional applications regulating trade and economic relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, signed three agreements on future cooperation between the two countries.
Each of the three agreements signed in Brussels must be approved by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The first document is a trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) on the one hand and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland on the other. The second agreement is a document regulating relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, which refers to the security and protection of classified information. The third document is the agreement between the Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) on safe and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The EU Council decided to sign all three documents and their entry into force on January 1, 2021. All agreements should be ratified within two months.
Experts say that the ratification of all three agreements by the European Parliament is expected no earlier than March of this year in the next plenary session. While discussing the documents, EU lawmakers hinted at the possibility of their extension. According to the EU representative, the duration of the application of the agreements is regulated by both parties within the framework of the EU Partnership Council.
Notably, the annex to the adopted resolution of the EU Council includes a request from the European Commission to submit relevant proposals guaranteeing the temporary use of the agreement until the completion of legal and linguistic procedures which are necessary for the entry into force of the adopted provisions of the treaty between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Since January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom has finally left the European Union. The agreement on the country's withdrawal from the euro bloc entered into force on February 1, 2020. In June last year, the United Kingdom refused to extend the transition period. As a result, the Brexit transition period ended on December 31, 2020.