Brexit: European Union speeding up negotiations. “From March 30th 2019, the United Kingdom will be a third country”

(Brussels) Today, the “General Affairs” Council (Article 50) of the European Union officially authorised the EU Commission to start negotiations “on any temporary measures that may be taken after the United Kingdom’s orderly withdrawal from the EU”. Today’s directives contain a few specifications about potential temporary procedures. In particular, “convenient choices will not be admissible”. This means that the United Kingdom “will keep being part of the customs union and the single market (with all four freedoms), and the EU’s acquis will still be totally applicable to the UK and within it, as if it were still a member state”. Therefore, the United Kingdom “will still be bound to meet its obligations with the third countries”. Any change in the acquis that may be decided in the transitional period will automatically apply to the United Kingdom as well. This is a measure that sheds light on some rumours and “hesitations” that had been heard in some of the British political world. In addition, “all of the EU’s current tools and facilities about regulations, budgeting, auditing, legal proceedings and executions, including the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union”, will apply: even in this respect, contrasting political statements had been heard from London. And then: as commissioned by the EU Council to the EU Commission, from March 30^th 2019, the United Kingdom “will be a third country”. As such, “therefore, it will no longer be part of the EU institutions, bodies or boards”. The transitional period will have to be clearly defined and limited in time, and “it will have to end by December 31^st 2020”. The provisions laid down in the withdrawal agreement “concerning citizens’ rights will therefore apply as from the date on which the transitional period ends”. Other points that will have to be agreed upon during the negotiations include, as pointed out by the EU Commission, intellectual property rights, privacy laws, and customs matters. In due time, the EU Commission “will publish a draft of a legal text for the withdrawal agreement that will include any temporary measures. Then, it will be up to the EU Council, with the authorisation of the European Parliament and the United Kingdom, in accordance with their constitutional rules, to finalise the actual agreement under article 50” of the EU Treaty.