Britain's Brexit Minister David Davis said on Wednesday that an EU deal on the transition period after Britain's withdrawal from the EU could be concluded by the end of March. Davis spoke in a hearing before a committee of British MPs. The transition period is to start on the official date of Brexit, scheduled for 29 March 2019, and last for about two years to allow the United Kingdom to adapt to new regulations and its new relationship with EU.
During this transition, "we will very much continue to apply the rules of the single market and the customs union," he said. “From the point of view of companies, everything will look the same.”
The United Kingdom will also continue to recognize the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and will participate in the EU budget, he said.
This approach was criticized by some conservative politicians. Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of a group pro-Brexit MPs, said Britain would be “a vassal state” during the transition period.
But Davis stressed that United Kingdom would be allowed to conclude trade agreements with third countries, which he could not envisage as long as UK is a member of the EU.
David Davis also said that the nature of the future relationship between the UK and EU should "be decided at the beginning of the transition and not at the end." "It would be useless to start a transition without knowing the outcome," he said.
The Brussels Times
