Both the House of Commons and House of Lords have now agreed on the text of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill 2019-20 (“WAB”), the legislation required for the UK to implement into domestic law the Withdrawal Agreement. The House of Lords introduced five amendments to the WAB (which also included restrictions on: (a) the … Read more
Following the Conservative Party’s decisive victory in December 2019’s General Election, it now seems all but inevitable that the UK will leave the EU on 31 January 2020 on the basis of the revised Brexit deal agreed between the UK and the EU in October 2019. However, this only marks the beginning of the process … Read more
The UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU at 11pm GMT on 31 January 2020. The UK will then enter a transition period until 31 December 2020, during which the UK and EU will attempt to agree the terms of their future relationship. The European Commission has begun its preparations for these negotiations: its … Read more
Brexit now seems inevitable on 31 January 2020 but that is only the beginning of the process of defining a new relationship between the UK and the EU. Serious negotiations on that relationship will only start thereafter, hopefully as soon as February. In this View from Brussels, we look at how this process will unfold. Read more
Both the House of Commons and House of Lords have voted in favour of the Early Parliamentary Election Bill scheduling a General Election for 12 December 2019. Parliament is now expected be dissolved at one minute past midnight on 6 November 2019 which will trigger the official start of the General Election campaign and the … Read more
The draft Withdrawal Agreement has finally been amended to replace the previous Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland with a new Protocol taking a rather different approach to securing the objective of avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We will describe below the main features of the new approach and then … Read more
This week’s events mark a significant milestone in the UK’s Brexit process. At the EU Summit the European Commission and the UK Government agreed a revised Brexit deal, which the EU Council endorsed. The next step is for the UK Government to obtain approval from the UK House of Commons on the revised deal starting with a … Read more
At the EU Summit today, the UK Government and European Commission agreed a revised Brexit deal, reaching agreement on the key outstanding issue of the Irish backstop and revising the terms of the future relationship. The European Commission has asked the European Council to endorse the revised Withdrawal Agreement and revised Political Declaration on the … Read more
While the risks of a no-deal Brexit on the 31 October 2019 have greatly diminished, a no-deal Brexit is still firmly on the table for that date or, perhaps more likely, a future date. Our updated Brexit Legal Guide addresses in detail the legal position if the UK leaves the EU with or without a … Read more
