The Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement finally enters into full force on 1 May 2021

Mayday Mayday! 

•    The Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) finally enters into full force on 1 May 2021

•    Definitive text of the TCA finally available

Last Saturday, as the UK and much of the EU enjoyed a public holiday weekend, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement finally and quietly entered into full force.

The TCA was announced on Christmas Eve 2020.  It was signed in Brussels and London on 30 December 2020.  

The UK Parliament had approved it on a single day between Christmas and New Year even though the document was not in final form and few had read the 1,449 pages (according to the EU's Official Journal last December). 

But the TCA only entered into "provisional force" on 1 January 2021 because the European Parliament and the European Council reserved their positions until they could read the final corrected version.  So these two EU institutions gave it "provisional force" so as to allow the arrangements to kick off on 1 January 2021 and to avoid a complete No-Deal Brexit (rather than the partial "No-Deal Brexit" which occurred).  

During the four months between January 2021 and the end of April 2021, the document received "legal cleansing".  Errors were corrected.  The correct numbering was applied.  The contents were studied carefully.  The EU and UK agreed on 21 April 2021 on the final version – the December 2020 version was to be put aside.  A final version was published in the Official Journal.  The new version is the official one.  And it grew to 2,530 pages.  The 75% increase in length is more a matter of layout than anything else but this is the official version that one should use.

There is, in fact, a suite of documents relating to Brexit and we would all be well advised to keep the suite close to hand as we unravel the intricacies of Brexit.

The suite of documents includes: 

  • Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part
  • Council Decision (EU) 2021/689 of 29 April 2021 on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, and of the Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning security procedures for exchanging and protecting classified information
  • Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning security procedures for exchanging and protecting classified information
  • Declarations referred to in the Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and of the Agreement concerning security procedures for exchanging and protecting classified information
  • Notice concerning the entry into force of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, and of the Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland concerning security procedures for exchanging and protecting classified information.

For more information contact Dr Vincent Power or any member of the Brexit, EU, Competition & Procurement team.

Date published: 5 May 2021