Brexit for dummies: What to know if you haven’t been paying attention

What do we know for sure?

The UK is scheduled to leave the EU at 11pm GMT on 29 March 2019. If a formal withdrawal treaty has not been signed by this point, all EU rules and regulations will instantly cease to apply to the UK.

Citizenship rights

The rights of three million EU citizens residing in the UK and more than one million Britons living in the EU would not be protected in a no-deal scenario.

EU citizens in the UK would be in “a form of legal and political limbo – not illegal, but with their status at best anomalous”, says the New Statesman. “Meanwhile, UK nationals elsewhere in the EU would find themselves at the mercy of individual nation states.”

NO Deal Big Deal

More than two hundred MPs have signed a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May asking her to rule out a no-deal Brexit.

The MPs are from different political parties and want to protect jobs and manufacturing.

They have been invited to meet the prime minister on Tuesday. Theresa May is trying to gain support for her withdrawal deal with the EU ahead of a vote in Parliament next week.

However, if her deal isn’t backed by MPs, there is the possibility of a ‘no deal Brexit’.

A no deal Brexit means the UK would leave the European Union (EU) immediately on 29 March 2019, and there would be no agreements in place about what their relationship would be like in future.

This is not what anybody in Parliament wants, but it’s a possible outcome if politicians can’t agree on what should happen next.

So the government needs some plans in place

This means there will be no remaining agreements between Britain and the EU on how to manage customs, trade, travel or citizens rights.

A no-deal Brexit also means that the transition period from March 2019 to December 2020 – designed to give businesses and organisations additional time to respond to the changes – would be off the table.

There is, however, the possibility that the EU could extend the two-year negotiation period. This would require the approval of all 27 member states and is only likely if negotiations are continuing and an agreement is in sight, according to lawyer and Brexit commentator

On June 23, 2016, 52 per cent of voters in Britain opted for the country to exit the European Union.

Now, more than two years later, British Prime Minister Theresa May is still trying to make that happen. But withdrawing from the political union has proved to be a difficult process.

What is ‘no-deal’ Brexit? The consequences of the UK leaving the EU without getting a deal Both the UK and the EU have made preparations for a no deal scenario

Here’s what you need to know about Brexit — what has happened, where it stands and what may happen next.

What happened in 2016, exactly?
More than 30 million U.K. residents voted in the referendum, with just more than half saying they want to leave the EU.

Politicians had promised that the results of the “yes or no” vote would dictate what action they took.

The country has been a part of the union for more than 40 years, so leaving it means cutting some intricate ties and defining new boundaries.

The prime minister’s stance on Brexit has been a constant source of controversy in British Parliament.

The Conservative Party that she heads currently has a minority government, which makes things even more risky for her. But even among her party, her draft of the deal has infuriated pro-Brexit members.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a huge backlash over her Brexit draft deal. Two senior cabinet ministers resigned, and as Eric Sorensen reports, May’s future in power is facing even more uncertainty.

They say the agreement, which calls for close trade ties between the U.K. and the bloc, would leave Britain a vassal state, bound to European Union rules it has no say in making.

Because May’s government has a minority, it relies on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland, which also isn’t keen on her deal.

Opposition parties also signalled they would vote against the agreement.

Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said May should withdraw the “half-baked” Brexit deal and that Parliament “cannot and will not accept a false choice between this deal and no deal.”That means May is currently battling to save both her Brexit plan and her job, as there have been calls for a no-confidence vote in the prime minister.

If a confidence vote is held and May loses, it would trigger a party leadership contest in which any Conservative lawmaker — except her — can run.

The winner would become prime minister without the need for a national election.

Where does the deal stand?
While the Tory Cabinet approved the 585-page draft agreement, many said they did not fully agree with its contents. Several key members of the party have also resigned over its terms.

As BBC News explains, the deal is still not final. It needs the approval of British members of Parliament, plus the 27 other members of the EU.

That’s a major hurdle for May, who lacks the support of many MPs.

If Parliament supports May’s plan, an actual EU Withdrawal Agreement Deal could be put forward early next year.

The EU is expected to vote on the contents of the deal later this month.

What the European Union is saying
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the draft agreement on Brexit Thursday, saying that nothing is worse than no deal.

“We have a document on the table that Britain and the EU 27 have agreed to, so for me there is no question at the moment whether we negotiate further,” Merkel said.

Merkel has said that the draft deal is a product of many negotiations and disagreements, and now it’s up to officials on both sides to review and finalize it.

— With files from The Associated Press and ringroad.com.ng

THINGS TO KNOW 

Has any country left the EU?
When home rule for Greenland began in 1979, it held a new referendum and voted to leave the EEC. After wrangling over fishing rights, the territory left the EEC in 1985, but remains subject to the EU treaties through association of Overseas Countries and Territories with the EU.

How much does the UK pay the EU per year?
£350 million is roughly what we would pay to the EU budget without the rebate. The UK actually paid closer to £250 million a week. The UK Statistics Authority has said the EU membership fee figure of £19 billion a year, or £350 million a week, is “not an amount of money that the UK pays to the EU each year”

Did Switzerland leave the EU?
However, after a Swiss referendum held on 6 December 1992 rejected EEA membership by 50.3% to 49.7%, the Swiss government decided to suspend negotiations for EU membership until further notice. … In 1994, Switzerland and the EU started negotiations about a special relationship outside the EEA.

Did Iceland leave the EU?
Iceland applied to join the European Union on 16 July 2009 and formal negotiations began on 27 July 2010. However, on 13 September 2013 the Government of Iceland dissolved its accession team and suspended its application to join the EU.

Which countries pay the most into the EU?
Total payments – €117.5bn. In 2007, five countries – Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and Spain – contributed nearly half of the budget. …
Percentage of income. The size of member states’ payments to the EU budget is broadly dependent on the size of their economy. …
Net contribution. …
Net by population.

Can the UK feed itself?
The UK has a highly successful agricultural industry, but many domestic and international factors affect food production and prices for consumers in the UK. … Therefore, as a food-trading nation, the UK relies on both imports and a thriving agricultural sector to feed itself and drive economic growth.

How much does Norway pay into the EU?
Norway pays around €400 million a year in grants paid to some of the EU’s poorer countries. While not formally a single market membership fee, this money is linked to trade relations with the EU. Norway’s EU minister said last year that “We gain from being a member of the single market.

How much money does the UK have?
How the UK Makes Money. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.62 trillion in 2017 and a population of more than 66 million, the United Kingdom has the fifth largest economy after the U.S., China, Japan and Germany. The U.K. is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Can Article 50 be stopped?
If it becomes clear that the UK won’t get a deal, an alternative would be for the government to revoke Article 50. That would stop the timer on the Brexit negotiations, keep the UK in the EU, and thus, effectively, stop Brexit. … All this, however, depends on the legal interpretation of the Article 50 text.

Can you reverse Article 50?
EU politicians have said that if the UK changes its mind, they are sure a political formula will be found to reverse article 50, regardless of the technical specifics of the law. … Article 50 does not provide for the unilateral withdrawal of notification.”

one of the biggest challenges I have had to face is explaining what Brexit is to our readers. While adults will be familiar with rhetoric in the mainstream media and beyond, many children were left wondering what was going on – and it was down to our publication to explain it to them in as simple a way as possible.

So, here’s how we have managed to explain such a complex event to the younger generations – so they’re as informed of the facts as possible.

On 23 June 2016 a referendum was held to decide whether the UK should remain in the European Union or leave it. More than 30 million people voted and Leave won by 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent.

A new word was created – Brexit – which is a short way of saying “the UK leaving the EU” by mixing the words Britain and Exit. But what does Brexit actually mean and how will it affect us all?

The European Union is a club of 28 European Countries. Each of these countries pays to be a member and in return, they get access to special ways of working together. This includes being part of a “single market”, which means that countries can trade with one another and people can move around freely – as if we were all living together in one big country.

The EU has its own parliament, laws and currency (the euro – although the UK doesn’t use this as we stuck to our own pounds and pence). The EU was set up after World War 2 with the idea that if countries work together, they are unlikely to go to war again.

The 48 per cent who voted to remain in the EU, including former Prime Minister David Cameron, felt that being a member of a 28-nation club is better than going it alone. They felt it was easier for us to sell things to other EU countries, meaning it was good for businesses and trade.

Theresa May meets Donald Tusk for Brexit talks,
So why did over half of voters (51.9 per cent) in the UK want to leave this special club?

The idea of the single market was to increase trade between countries, creating jobs and lowering prices. However, the European Parliament decides on many rules and standards that EU countries have to follow and critics felt that we were losing control of our own affairs and laws.

The UK pays billions of pounds in membership fees to the EU every year and some people felt that we weren’t getting much back in return for this.

Also, many people are moving from poorer countries to richer countries around the world. This has made some people in the UK worry about the free movement rule, which allows people in the EU to move to any other EU country without needing special permission (a visa). This was a key issue for many voters and the Leave campaign won by just 4 per cent.

Once the referendum had taken place, new Prime Minister Theresa May had to trigger a special plan called Article 50, which she did on 29 March 2017. This is a formal way of telling the European Council about the UK’s plans to leave the EU.

May’s Brexit breakdown: UK must settle ‘divorce bill’ says EU’s chief negotiator
Once Article 50 was triggered, Theresa May had to get agreement from the UK Parliament – the House of Commons and the House of Lords – on her proposed Brexit deal. This has happened and the UK Government is now in talks with the EU to decide exactly how the split should happen. This is a complicated process as all the remaining 27 countries’ parliaments have to agree with the deal.

The UK and the EU have two years to agree how they will split from each other, which means that we should leave the EU no later than April 2019.

While these talks are going on, the UK will stick with the EU laws until we are officially not a member any more. It is too early to know what will be agreed but Brexit is definitely happening and we are all hoping that the best possible deal is agreed.