The Withdrawal Agreement was the result of the Brexit negotiations. [1] In the general election on 12 December 2019, Boris Johnson`s government won a majority of 80 seats with the promise to adopt the WAB, ratify the Withdrawal Agreement and take the UK out of the EU on 31 January 2020 without further extensions. Plans to reintroduce the WAB were then confirmed as the government`s top priority in the Queen`s Speech of 19 December 2019. Providing for a transition period until 31 December 2020 to allow for the negotiation of a future trade agreement between the UK and the EU, during which the UK will continue to be treated as an EU Member State in many respects and will continue to apply EU law. The Withdrawal Agreement Bill passed its third and final reading in the House of Commons on 9 January 2020 by 330 votes to 231. [11] On the 21st. In January 2020, the House of Lords passed the bill after approving five amendments. However, these amendments were repealed by the House of Commons the next day. [12] [13] In contrast, the Political Declaration is not legally binding at any level and is merely a declaration of political intent in the sense of a basis for negotiations on a future trade agreement after the UK`s withdrawal from the EU. It is essentially desirable in nature. This does not require any particular form or content of an agreement, or in fact requires that there be a future agreement.

In fact, it appears to have played relatively little role in the UK-EU negotiations in 2020. During the transition period, EU law in the UK largely continued to apply as if it were still an EU Member State. Amendments or additions to EU law made during the transition period also applied. The UK remained a member of the EU`s single market and customs union and continued to respect the four freedoms of movement of goods, persons, services and capital, as well as the application of the EU Customs Code to imports into the UK from third countries. The November 2018 version of the Withdrawal Agreement provided for a transition period (called by the UK government implementation period) from 31 March 2019, the initial date on which the UK was to leave the EU, to 31 December 2020. The transitional provisions were incorporated into the Withdrawal Agreement in October 2019, with the possibility of extending them by mutual agreement. This option was to have been exercised by 1 July 2020 and has not been exercised. In fact, the government has passed laws to prevent a minister from agreeing to an extension of the transition period.

This law received Royal Assent on January 23, 2020, nine days before the United Kingdom`s withdrawal from the European Union. The ratified Withdrawal Agreement was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on the day of the withdrawal, together with the Political Declaration on the framework for the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU: the Withdrawal Agreement is a legally binding treaty. As such, it binds the UK in international law, rather than creating national laws on which UK courts can rely. However, elements of this will be incorporated into UK law by EU(WA)A 2020, which creates national laws – for example, with regard to citizenship provisions. (*) The European Union approved the withdrawal agreement on 31st September. January 2020 closed. Further details on the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol were set out in the Government`s command document published on 20 May 2020. In addition to the rights deriving therefrom, which may have direct effect, the Withdrawal Agreement from national law will only take effect through national law (i.e.

eu(WA)A 2020, eu(W)A 2018 as amended and related secondary legislation). For example, through EU(WA)A 2020, the UK Parliament agrees to limit its sovereignty by providing that the Withdrawal Agreement takes precedence over UK law, just as the European Communities Act 1972 (ECA 1972) gave priority to EU law. On 22 January 2020, the Bill was passed by the House of Lords without further amendments. He received royal approval the next day. [14] [15] The WAB was created shortly after the Queen`s Speech on September 19. December 2019 reintroduced with changes. The WAB received Royal Assent on 23 January 2020 and became the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (EU(WA)A 2020). The adoption of this law confirmed the approval by the UK Parliament of the Withdrawal Agreement in accordance with national constitutional requirements.

The bill was reintroduced immediately after the parliamentary elections and was the first bill to be introduced in the House of Commons in the first session of the 58th Parliament[5] with amendments to the previous bill by the re-elected government, and on December 19, immediately after the first reading of the Law on Anarchy and before the start of the debate on the Queen`s Speech, was read for the first time. The second reading took place on 20 December and the third on 9 January 2020. These provisions take effect at national level in UK law through the European Union Withdrawal Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018), as amended by EU(WA)A 2020. After approval by the British Parliament, the withdrawal agreement was signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. On 29 January 2020, the European Parliament approved a resolution for the conclusion of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the EU deposited the instrument of ratification with the European Council before its adoption on 30 January 2020. The result is a complex legal framework covering the EU(W)A 2020, the EU(W)A 2018 (as amended), the European Court of Auditors 1972 (whose effect was maintained with modifications during the transition period) and the Withdrawal Agreement itself. Although the initial opposition covered a number of issues, it quickly rallied to the “backstop” of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. This backstop would have led the UK as a whole to form a customs union with the EU and to commit to reflect certain obligations under a level playing field in terms of environmental protection, labour and social rights, state aid and competition, and taxes with Northern Ireland, which comply with a number of additional EU legislations. .