June 23 marks the fifth anniversary of Britain's referendum on EU membership - timeline part 3 of 3

Record ID: 1622719

  • Title: June 23 marks the fifth anniversary of Britain's referendum on EU membership - timeline part 3 of 3
  • Date: 22nd June 2021
  • Summary: After three years of talks and a new deal setting the terms of Britain's exit from the EU in sight, residents of border towns in Northern Ireland say even the softest Brexit could destabilise the hard-won peace in the region. The conundrum for Brexit negotiators has been how to prevent the border between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland becoming a backdoor into the EU's single market without erecting checkpoints that could undermine two decades of peace. Under the new agreement, Northern Ireland would remain in the UK customs area but tariffs would apply on goods crossing from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland if they were deemed to be headed further, to Ireland and the bloc's single market. BORDER BETWEEN LIFFORD, IRELAND AND STRABANE, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - OCTOBER 16, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ROAD SIGN READING (English): "WELCOME TO NORTHERN IRELAND" / 'NORTHERN' COVERED WITH SPRAY PAINT BORDER BETWEEN BRIDGE END, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND AND COSHQUIN, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - OCTOBER 16, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SIGN ON ROAD CROSSING BORDER READING (English): "NO HARD BORDER" BORDER BETWEEN LIFFORD, IRELAND AND STRABANE, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - OCTOBER 16, 2019) (REUTERS) SIGN ON BORDER BRIDGE READING (English): "NO HARD BORDER" ROAD SIGN SHOWING SPEED LIMIT IN MILES ON NORTHERN IRISH SIDE OF BORDER / VEHICLES DRIVING BY BILLBOARD READING (English): "PETROL CHEAPER THAN SOUTH"
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2021 17:11
  • Keywords: Brexit deal Brexit timeline British Prime Minister Boris Johnson EU European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Queen Elizabeth Queen's speech no-deal Brexit
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA004EII9WSN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Wednesday (June 23) marks the fifth anniversary of the day the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.
    Britain's exit from one of the world's biggest trading blocs concluded on December 31, 2020, just days after it clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union, in its most momentous global shift since the loss of empire.
    The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted by a slim margin to leave the bloc, put a stamp on a divorce that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two.
    Under the "EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement" Britain is no longer part of the European Union's single market and customs union, there are no tariffs or quotas on the movement of goods originating in either place between the United Kingdom and the EU.
    Prime Minister Boris Johnson cast the deal as the final implementation of the will of the British people who voted 52-48% for Brexit in a 2016 referendum
    But a continued dispute between London and Brussels over the implementation of the 2020 Brexit treaty in the British province of Northern Ireland has put at risk the historic U.S.-brokered 1998 Irish peace agreement, known as the Good Friday accord, which effectively ended three decades of violence.
    The protocol aims to keep the province, which borders EU member Ireland, in both the United Kingdom's customs territory and the EU's single market.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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