Brexit negotiations

Between 2017 and 2019, representatives of the United Kingdom and the European Union negotiated the terms for Brexit, the planned withdrawal of the UK from the EU. These negotiations arose following the decision of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, following the UK's EU membership referendum on 23 June 2016. The negotiating period began on 29 March 2017, when the United Kingdom served the withdrawal notice under Article 50. The withdrawal was then planned to occur on 29 March 2019, two years after the date of notification, as specified by Article 50. Negotiations formally opened on 19 June 2017, when David Davis, the UK's Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, arrived in Brussels to meet with Michel Barnier, the Chief Negotiator appointed by the European Commission. They began to discuss a withdrawal agreement, including terms of a transitional period and an outline of the objectives for a future UK–EU relationship. In November 2018, European Union officials announced that they would accept no further negotiations or changes before the UK legally leaves. A Brexit withdrawal agreement was finally ratified by the UK and the EU, and came into force from 1 February 2020. With the Brexit negotiations to establish a trade agreement treaty between the EU and the UK has started. In addition, the EU's existing Free Trade and WTO tariff-rate quotas with third countries (agreed while the UK was still a member) may need be split or renegotiated. In March and April 2019, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May and European Union leaders agreed to move the date of the UK's departure to 31 October 2019. May resigned as leader of the ruling Conservative Party on 7 June 2019, and on 23 July, Boris Johnson was elected as her successor. The Johnson ministry and EU agreed to resume regular meetings to discuss the withdrawal agreement on 28 August 2019, but the UK declared a pre-condition that the Irish backstop must be scrapped, which the EU said it wouldn't accept.