One year before the United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union - on March 29, 2019. The Russian experts told about the exit process.
Associate Professor at Moscow State Institute of International Relations Nikolai Topornin recalled that one of the main issues of the recent EU summit, which was held in the end of last week, was Brexit: "The first day of the summit, March 22, attended by British Prime Minister Therese May, was entirely devoted to the solution of various aspects of Britain's exit from the EU. Britain does not change its position despite rumors and false information in the media. It will strictly implement the decision of the people that was adopted in 2016. The latest polls show that 53% of Britons would now keep European Union membership, but this number is not a constant - bigger and smaller. Generally speaking, the British society is split roughly into two equal halves. The second stage of the process to agree on the parameters of the UK's exit has started. They finished the first stage in December of last year, and now outlined the main targets of those goals and objectives, to work on them in the next 6-7 months."
The United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the European Union before March 29, 2019, but a special regime will operate before January 1, 2021. "The special regime is mainly intended for those EU citizens who are currently working in the UK, and those British citizens who are currently working in continental Europe. For them, by and large, nothing changes. Citizens of the EU, who will arrive in the UK for work, study or other issues during this transitional period, will have the same rights that other European citizens had before this significant process," Topornin said.
Answering the question of what is the purpose of the transition period, he noted: "The UK insists on maintaining the free trade regime. It would be unacceptable for it to lose such an important market for goods and services as continental Europe. Even the conservative government, which are Eurosceptics, understands that if a fence between Britain and the EU is erected, the United Kingdom will suffer very serious losses, especially in terms of economic development. Therefore they want to preserve the free trade zone and determine its conditions themselves. The European Union has a number of agreements that have been concluded with some international alliances. Last year, a treaty on a free trade zone with Canada was ratified, the negotiations with Mexico are currently under way, there were successful negotiations with Japan. That is the EU is on its way to creating a comprehensive network of agreements within which turnover of services and goods will be free of duty. Today the negotiations on TTIP and Transatlantic partnership with the US are frozen to some extent for Europeans, but nevertheless they think that this obstacle is surmountable if Trump are not re-elected for the next term. Therefore, the UK does not want to sign these agreements concluded by the European Union, but wants to individually agree on each issue and reserve the opportunity to enter into additional agreements with each EU country. "
Meanwhile, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladislav Belov concluded that the Brussels summit ended with nothing in terms of Brexit: "The UK presents high expectations, wishing to maintain a special industry-specific regime. But Russia had been made a priority at the summit as an image of the enemy, which should consolidate the society around May and Johnson. Therefore, there were no new solutions in terms of Brexit. "
