Brexit Negotiations: UK Government Publishes Approach to Future EU-UK Relationship

The U.K. government has published a document setting out its negotiating proposals for a future relationship with the EU. The U.K. left the EU on January 31, 2020 and is no longer an EU member state. However, during an agreed transitional period (currently scheduled to end on December 31, 2020), EU laws and regulations will continue to apply in the U.K. The EU and U.K. will be negotiating during that period on their future relationship.

The U.K. is proposing a comprehensive free trade agreement (CFTA), similar to the trade agreements that the EU has recently agreed with countries such as Canada. The proposal is aligned with the Political Declaration agreed between the EU and U.K. in October 2019.

The U.K.'s approach for financial services will be to seek legally binding obligations on market access and fair competition that broadly follow the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement provisions. In line with the EU-Japan agreement, the U.K. government will strive for establishing regulatory cooperation agreements that include consultation and processes for withdrawing equivalence decisions. The U.K. government reiterates the commitment of both the U.K. and the EU to conclude comprehensive equivalence assessments before the end of June 2020, which is a separate workstream to the CFTA. The U.K. left the EU with the same rules, which provides a strong basis for completing the assessments within the agreed timeframe.

View the U.K.'s Approach to Negotiations.

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