On November 14, 2018, the European Commission and the U.K. government published a draft Withdrawal Agreement and an Outline Political Declaration on the framework for the future relationship between the EU and the U.K. The draft Withdrawal Agreement has been agreed between the negotiators and must still be ratified by the U.K. and EU27 leaders. The full Political Declaration on the future relationship is expected by the end of November 2018, provided the draft Withdrawal Agreement is ratified.

The draft Withdrawal Agreement outlines how the U.K. will leave the EU and provides for the previously agreed transition period that would run from March 30, 2019 until December 31, 2020. It also provides for the agreements concerning the future relationship to be negotiated expeditiously with the objective of ensuring that the agreements apply from the end of the transition period. This timeframe is reiterated in the Outline Political Declaration. The negotiators have committed to report regularly on progress made on concluding the agreements governing the future relationship between the EU and the U.K.

The Outline Political Declaration briefly sets out the principles agreed by the negotiators for the future relationship. The Outline confirms that the basis of the future relationship in financial services will be decision-making autonomy and equivalence. The EU and the U.K. are to strive to conclude equivalence assessments before the end of June 2020. The documentation is silent on whether there will be any changes to the processes around equivalency or any expansion to the categories of equivalences under U.K. or EU laws.

Other documents published with the draft Withdrawal Agreement are a Joint Statement on the state of play of the Brexit negotiations, a Withdrawal Agreement explainer and a technical explanatory note on Articles 6- 8 on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The draft Withdrawal Agreement can be viewed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/756374/14_
November_Draft_Agreement_on_the_Withdrawal_of_the_United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Northern
_Ireland_from_the_European_Union.pdf, the Joint Statement on the state of play of the negotiations can be  viewed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/756377/14_
November_Joint_Statement.pdf, the Outline Political Declaration can be viewed at:  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/756378/14
_November_Outline_Political_Declaration_on_the_Future_Relationship.pdf  and the explanatory text on the  Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/withdrawal-agreement-explainer-and-technical-explanatory-note-on-articles-6-8-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol.

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