A consultative referendum in which the citizens of the United Kingdom were asked whether their country should leave the European Union took place on 23 June 2016. By a very small majority, the British people supported the idea of leaving the EU. The outcome differed across the country: in Scotland, Northern Ireland and also in London, the people’s will was not to leave. Nevertheless. the referendum was followed by the UK government’s commitment to get Brexit done. First, on 1 February 2020, the Withdrawal Agreement entered into force, allowing for an 11-month transition period. This provided legal certainty to all those affected by Brexit. Then, as of 1 January 2021,  when the agreement on the future relationship took effect,  the UK officially became a third country. 

The EU-UK agreement on trade and cooperation is unprecedented on many accounts. Its most important feature is that it has significantly narrowed relations between the UK and the EU, which they had built jointly for more than 45 years. 

A major economy has voluntarily left a preferential trade area, the single borderless market of 450 million people and the world's biggest and most influential standard-setting and regulatory power. 

It has done so at a time when the world will quite clearly be shaped by three major global powers - the US, the EU and China, at a time when a global pandemic requires solidarity and cooperation. The withdrawal from the EU was driven by the political will to take back control and by a rather traditional understanding of the term "sovereignty".

Negotiating this agreement was a painful and difficult process, fraught with uncertainty, keeping us in the no-deal territory nearly till the last minute of the transition period. Still, the European Commission managed to keep negotiations alive long enough to reach the moment when agreement became feasible. Fortunately, the British government did not use the sovereignty argument as a pretext for a no-deal calamity. 

No-deal has never been an option for the EU. We were also aware  that even a wafer-thin agreement is better than a no-deal. In any case, with a deal or without it, there will be distortions and costs to be paid by the general public and the business community on both sides of the Channel. 

With the UK becoming a third country, even the most effective preparedness measures would not protect us fully against the consequences of Brexit. The good news is that all of the measures envisaged in the Withdrawal Agreement regarding the Irish border and citizens' rights have been implemented and become operational on time. 

What is worth mentioning is that the European Parliament demonstrated enormous flexibility regarding its democratic right to scrutinise the future agreement and agreed to proceed with its consent under the exceptional circumstances to the provisional application of the agreement. 

The Parliament has decided to pay this price because we believe that achieving agreement on the future partnership will allow us to keep the conversation over the channel open in the long term. And this is a price worth paying. 

Nobody knows what the outcome of a referendum might be if it were held today, when the British public at large is much better informed than back then in 2016, with regard to the consequences of no longer being citizens of the European Union and when the world around the UK has changed so dramatically. Is the ethos of Brexit still valid in the UK? We will never know. But I wish our British friends all the best. 

Real life will test everyone's preparedness for the new situation. It will test the agreement reached. It will test the value of British sovereignty. 

Both sides believe we have a good deal. But there will be costs related to the inevitable disruptions. Consumers and businesses will pay the costs of the UK no longer being part of the single market or the customs union. Students from the EU wishing to study in the UK will no longer have the status of home students. The British government was not interested in the UK participating in the Erasmus exchange programme. 

The free movement of persons, goods, services and capital between the EU and the UK has come to an end. There will be barriers to mobility and trade. 

The City of London will remain an important global financial hub and I hope we will be able to develop a cooperative approach. 

The Good Friday Agreement has been saved. The EU has managed to defend the integrity of its internal market of 450 million participants. It has also maintained its unity from day one, while protecting its core values and principles. 

The President of the European Commission said at the end of the negotiations that she felt satisfaction and relief. It is true that Brexit consumed a lot of our time and energy. It is done. The UK will continue its go-it-alone journey. The European Union now has to focus on its future and its global mission. 

The agreement on our future relations is a complex one. There are many risks and challenges to its implementation and enforcement. Many difficult times lie ahead of us. Though it is an unprecedented agreement, there are elements of unfinished business. Talks will continue and regulatory dialogue will be fundamental. And for our British friends, full understanding of what it means to be a third country is still to come. The good thing is that having a deal will help us to continue the dialogue. 

Professor Danuta Hübner,

Member of the European Parliament