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News > United Kingdom

The United Kingdom Detaches From the European Union Today

  • PM Boris Johnson signs the post-Brexit trade deal, London, Britain, Dec. 30, 2020.

    PM Boris Johnson signs the post-Brexit trade deal, London, Britain, Dec. 30, 2020. | Photo: Xinhua

Published 31 December 2020
Opinion

"This is an amazing moment for this country... We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it," Prime Minister Johnson said.

On the night of December 31, the UK will end the regulatory ties that have bound it to the European Union (EU) for nearly half a century.

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EU Leaders Sign Post-Brexit Trade Deal With UK

While the last-minute agreement with the EU avoided immediate commercial and financial chaos, the deal reached will not prevent the full consequences of Brexit from being discovered in the coming months.

In addition to the fact that companies have made their calculations to avoid possible collapses at the border in the new year, the British authorities have allowed a gradual entry into force of custom requirements to give more time for companies to prepare. So will the 27 EU countries.

The four and a half years since the British decided by referendum to leave the EU have been exhausting. People want to turn the page and focus their energies on more pressing problems, such as the pandemic or the economic crisis.

With that perspective, both those who supported Brexit and those who rejected it share the same sense of relief. Since 2016, however, the pro-Brexit discourse has worn down to repetitive rhetoric around the word "sovereignty."

Appreciating things from that perspective, Prime Minister Boris Johnson achieved the result he desired, for he did not leave a single forceful legal thread between his country and the EU block.

"This is an amazing moment for this country... We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it," he said, as reported by The Sun.

However, the U.K. will need to maintain fluid relations with Brussels. And this is so because the agreement signed is so light that it will have to be continuously changed with new details.

"The agreement provides a general framework for future trade... however, it is one that leaves ample room for very likely litigation," the Italian outlet Il Manifesto commented.

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