What you need to understand about Brexit

On the 31^st of January 2020, the UK was officially no longer a member of the European Union. Since then, the UK has been working on coming to agreements with the EU on the nature of their trade relationships, aviation standards, access to fishing waters, supply of electricity and gas and the licensing of medicine going forward.

If you haven’t been following the entire Brexit saga closely, then here’s everything you need to know.

What is Brexit?

Brexit is the name the media is using to refer to the British exit from the European Union. The EU is the union between 27 European countries which has previously allowed for free trade and movement between countries in Europe. The UK is the first member of the EU to choose to leave. In 2016 a referendum was held and 17.4 million Brits voted to leave the EU (which meant 52% of voters wanted to leave). Most of the leave voters polled said that their main reason for voting to leave the EU was because they wanted sovereignty and more control over immigration

Following the referendum the UK officially left the EU at the beginning of 2020 and began a transition period set to end on the 31^st of December 2020.

Whilst in this transition period the UK is still operating under existing trade agreements but is no longer taking part in EU politics.

During the course of this transition period the UK must decide on how their relationship with the EU will work – a new free trade agreement is the main priority for the country. At the end of the transition period if new agreements have not been reached then tariffs and border checks will apply between people travelling between the UK and the EU.