June 23 marks the fifth anniversary of Britain's referendum on EU membership - timeline part 2 of 3

Record ID: 1622795

  • Title: June 23 marks the fifth anniversary of Britain's referendum on EU membership - timeline part 2 of 3
  • Date: 22nd June 2021
  • Summary: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar says that the removal of the border backstop without any proper replacement would mean a no-deal Brexit for the United Kingdom. Varadkar said he would not replace a legal guarantee for the Irish backstop, an insurance agreement to prevent the return of border controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, without an specific alternative. DUBLIN, IRELAND (FILE - SEPTEMBER 9, 2019) (REUTERS) IRISH PRIME MINISTER LEO VARADKAR AND JOHNSON AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) IRISH PRIME MINISTER LEO VARADKAR, SAYING: "In the absence of agreed alternative arrangements, no backstop is no deal for us. All it does is kick the can down the road for another 14 months; another 14 months of uncertainty for business, another 14 months of uncertainty for people north and south of the border, so that's not an option that we find attractive at all." VARADKAR AND JOHNSON AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON, SAYING: "I think we have really the ideal amount of time in which to get this kind of thing done. Angela Merkel said, I think she said it should be a 30-year, 30 days would be enough -- 30 years would certainly be something - it would be 30 years if we didn't concentrate our minds. Thirty days ought to be enough, she, said and I think she is totally right. If we really focus, I think we can make a huge amount of progress." VARADKAR AND JOHNSON SHAKING HANDS AT END OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2021 14:16
  • Keywords: Brexit Leave Means Leave Stephen Barclay Theresa May leave protest timeline
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: European Union,Europe,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA00SEII5S93
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: FOR PART 1 OF THE TIMELINE, PLEASE SEE EDIT 0245-BRITAIN-EU/TIMELINE-PART1
    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)
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