New Year brings final Brexit split between EU and UK

Britain saw a major reset to its relations with the European Union on January 1, the first day after the end of the 11-month transition phase which served to smooth its exit from the bloc.

The UK officially left the bloc on January 31, 2020, but it effectively remained tied to it in terms of customs and commercial arrangements while it sought a free-trade agreement. 

At the stroke of midnight in Brussels and 11 p.m. in London on Thursday, the UK quit the EU's Customs Union and Single Market. The New Year also ended freedom of movement between the UK and nearly all of the EU states, except for Ireland.

However, special rules are now in place for Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on the southern Spanish coast. Talks between the governments in London, Madrid, and Gibraltar on Thursday came down to the last hours to scramble a deal that sees Gibraltar enter the Schengen zone.

Long lines yet to materialize

The first post-Brexit truck carried goods across the border on Friday. The driver pulled in at the new pit stop at the exit of the Channel Tunnel with a new array of documents which will now become standard practice for those passing between the UK and the EU as a result of Brexit.

DW correspondent Barbara Wesel, reporting from Calais, in northern France, said that there was very little traffic on the morning of January 1, but she explained that this was because the bigger companies had had time to prepare and accustom themselves to the new rules.

However, "it is going to hit a lot of the smaller transport companies that carry mixed loads ... For them, life is going to be much more difficult."

She added that the delays might be more noticeable on Monday, after the long weekend and the New Year's day holiday. "Then we might see those traffic jams that everybody has been warning about," Wesel said.

British officials say concerns about long delays to freight traffic may have prompted many firms to postpone journeys for the first few days.

Hope and regret

In a New Year message, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would remain "an open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free-trading" country once it left the EU sphere.

"This is an amazing moment for this country," he said. "We have our freedom in our hands, and it is up to us to make the most of it."

However, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed regret over the split. "The United Kingdom remains our neighbor but also our friend and ally," said Macron in his New Year's address.

"This choice of leaving Europe, this Brexit, was the child of European malaise and lots of lies and false promises.''

UK lawmakers approved a post-Brexit trade deal on Wednesday, just a day before the end of the EU-UK transition period.

What are some of the changes?

EU citizens will no longer have the conditional right to move to the UK to work and settle, and vice versa. From now, they will need to follow immigration rules and obtain work visas.

People from the UK who want to stay in most of the EU for more than 90 days in any 180-day period will need a visa. However, EU residents visiting the UK will be able to stay for up to six months without a visa.

Customs border checks are to return for the first time in decades, and despite the free-trade deal, travelers and traders are expected to face queues and disruption from additional paperwork.

Also, despite both sides pledging to continue security cooperation, police in the UK will lose instant access to EU-wide databases on fingerprints, wanted individuals, and criminal records.

ab,rc/mm (APF, dpa, Reuters, AP)