| 释义 |
Brexit
“British exit”: the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, as decided by the Referendum on Continued Membership of the European Union held on 23 June 2016 and formally begun by the invoking of Article 50 on 29 March 2017. According to the terms of Article 50, the process was due to be completed in March 2019, but the failure of the UK Parliament to ratify a Withdrawal Agreement with the EU led to several agreed extensions. In the meantime, Parliament passed the European Union (Withdrawal) Act on 26 June 2018. This was an Act to enable the necessary legal changes arising from the decision to leave the EU and had three key elements: (1) repealing the 1972 European Communities Act by which the UK joined the European Economic Community; (2) transposing all existing EU law into UK law (see retained EU law); and (3) giving ministers the ability to tweak laws where thought necessary. However, these legal changes would not take effect until “Exit Day”, the day the UK officially left the EU. A Withdrawal Agreement with the EU was finally approved by Parliament and in January 2020 this was enshrined in UK law in the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act. As a result, the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 came into force on 31 January 2020, and the UK formally left the EU on this date. However, an amendment to the Act provided for an implementation period of 11 months during which the UK would remain in the EU Single Market and Customs Union and EU law would continue to apply. Shortly before the expiry of this period, an EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement was concluded and enacted in UK law via the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020. From 31 December 2020 EU law no longer has supremacy in the UK. See also Northern Ireland Protocol. |