Yesterday, the European Parliament ratified the
Withdrawal Agreement which sets out the terms of the UK's departure from the EU:
this was the last remaining step to completing the Brexit
process.
The UK will now officially renounce its EU membership at 11pm
GMT today, ending 47 years of integration with the EU. The UK will
now enter a
transition period until 31 December 2020 (which may only be
extended once, for up to 1 or 2 years, if agreed before 1 July
2020), during which EU law and the rulings of the European Court of
Justice will continue to apply within and to the UK although the UK
will no longer be a EU Member State.
The EU has stated it "wants to have the best possible relationship
with the United Kingdom", but it might be difficult
to reconcile the opposing positions that the UK and EU have
appeared to adopted in how they propose to approach the post-Brexit
trade negotiations (due to start on 3 March 2020). In particular,
the level playing field
