The Withdrawal Agreement, Part Two

Part Two of the Withdrawal Agreement consists of four Titles—on ‘General Provisions’; ‘Rights and Obligations’; ‘Coordination of Social Security Systems’, and ‘Other Provisions’. Title I sets out the general provisions, which are applicable to the whole of Part Two, with a few exceptions, in particular with regard to Title III. Title II is structured in three Chapters, on rights related to residence, residence documents, rights of workers and self-employed, and professional qualifications respectively. Title III has its own personal scope, as it reflects Union law on social security coordination, and applies to rights acquired in the past, independently of later rights of residence. Title IV includes rules on communication obligations, the duration of the protection afforded under Part Two, as well as on the right of Member States or of UK to take more favourable measures. In a nutshell, the Withdrawal Agreement protects EU citizens residing in the UK, and UK nationals residing in one of the 27 EU Member States at the end of the transition period, where such residence is in accordance with EU law on free movement. It also protects family members that are granted rights under EU law (current spouses and registered partners, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, and a person in an existing durable relationship), who do not yet live in the same host state as the Union citizen or the UK national, to join them in the future. Children are protected by the Withdrawal Agreement irrespective of whether they are born before or after the UK’s withdrawal, or whether they are born inside or outside the host state where the EU citizen or the UK national resides. The only exception concerns children born after the UK’s withdrawal and of whom a parent not covered by the Withdrawal Agreement has sole custody under the applicable family law.