EU-UK trade deal enters into full force and effect

The trade and cooperation agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom entered into full force on Saturday after the European Parliament ratified it on Wednesday, in the last remaining step to confirm the text concluded on Christmas Eve evening 2020.

The agreement was already provisionally applied from 1 January 2021, the first day with the United Kingdom fully disengaged from EU structures, and the full entry into force does not change the 'status quo' of the first months of the year, although it does completely rule out the possibility of a no-deal Brexit scenario.

Following the conclusion of negotiations on the trade agreement on 24 December, both the British House of Commons and the European Parliament had to give the green light to the pact in order to confirm its entry into force. While London did so before the end of the year, the European Parliament refused to speed up its scrutiny of the deal so much that it could only be applied provisionally.

Four months of scrutiny later, Parliament voted in favour of ratifying the text on Wednesday by 660 votes to 5, with 32 abstentions.

The Council, the institution representing the countries, on Thursday adopted the so-called "decision to conclude" the agreement, the last one for the European bloc, followed by an exchange of letters with the British authorities to notify them of this step.

The final agreement and its annexes were published in the EU's official journal on Friday and enter into force on Saturday.

The pacts that define the new relationship between London and Brussels are the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) on the one hand and the UK on the other, the Agreement on Security Procedures for Exchanging and Protecting Classified Information between the EU and the UK, and the Agreement for Cooperation in the Safe and Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between Euratom and the UK.

They replace all the EU treaties and rules that have determined the UK's membership of the European Union for 47 years, a relationship that was sealed by the UK's vote in favour of disengagement in the June 2016 referendum in the UK.

The formal exit process was activated in March 2017, and from then on both blocs negotiated how to redefine their ties and agreements, often in a complicated context between the European Commission -which led the talks on behalf of the EU-27- and the British government, first led by Theresa May and later by Boris Johnson.

As of now, however, the structures created to monitor the proper functioning and implementation of the agreements signed continue to operate, which have gained some notoriety after the unilateral violation of part of the Irish protocol by the British government, which Brussels and London are trying to resolve through dialogue.