The UK leaves the European Union behind on Thursday, 48 years after it joined the bloc, a significant change in the world order that will also bring major changes for ordinary Britons.
On 1 January, decades of trade with the EU will cease without customs declarations and regulatory hurdles, one of several changes that could have major and lasting effects on the British economy. The rights of a UK citizen to live, work or study in any other EU Member State will also fall, which will highlight the EU’s reach in the daily lives of its citizens. EU citizens will also lose these rights in the UK
For Brexit supporters, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, these costs are justified by the benefits and opportunities that exit from the EU will bring. Its exit will allow the UK to boost British trade with the rest of the world and establish laws to shape its economy and society without the interference of Brussels, they say.
“Brexit is not an end, but a beginning, and now it is the responsibility of all of us to make the best use of the powers we have regained,” Johnson said on Wednesday during a debate on the UK free trade agreement. United and the EU in Parliament.
The agreement reached on Christmas Eve between London and Brussels on the terms of their future relationship spanned more than 1,000 pages, spanning areas as diverse as fishing rights and co-operation between police authorities.