Brexit: who has said what about transition?

New negotiating guidelines and directives

The European Council adopted new Guidelines for the Brexit negotiations in December 2017 and new Negotiating Directives in January 2018. These supplement the earlier Guidelines and Negotiating Directives of April-May 2017 but do not replace them. They cover negotiations on the planned transition or implementation period. New Directives are expected to be adopted in March 2018 on the framework for the UK’s future relations with the EU.

The two sides outline positions

Since the adoption of the new negotiating directives, the EU and the UK negotiators have expressed their positions on the transition or implementation period in speeches, interviews, letters and draft texts.

This paper outlines what the actors on the EU and UK sides have been saying about the scope of and conditions for a transition period, in which the UK will no longer be an EU Member State but will apply and adhere to the EU acquis as if it were a Member State.

For detailed analysis of the legal and political implications of the negotiating directives, the Commission’s draft legal text and the Government’s draft text for discussion, see Commons Briefing Paper 8234, Brexit: Council Directives for Negotiations on Transition, updated 23 February 2018.