The Withdrawal Agreement, Part Four

This chapter assesses Part Four of the Withdrawal Agreement, which deals with the transition (or implementation) period. The European Council (Article 50) Guidelines on Brexit negotiations of 15 December 2017, opened, on the European Union side, the possibility for a transition period that would create a bridge between the membership of the UK and the entry into force of the agreement governing the future relations between the EU and the UK, and therefore limit to the extent possible the disruptions during the timeframe when the agreement(s) on the future relationship are negotiated. They also defined the overall positions and principles that the EU would pursue throughout the negotiations in relation to the transition period. The UK’s approach to the legal text of the transition period was published on 21 February 2018, and the negotiations between the EU and the UK started on this Part immediately thereafter, with the objective to reach agreement before the March 2018 European Council. During the transition (or implementation) period, despite of the fact that the UK is no longer an EU member, it preserves the main rights, benefits, and obligations inherent to EU membership, the main exceptions being related to the participation in the work of the institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies of the EU.