In June 2016 the United Kingdom decided to leave the EU, following a referendum where 51.9 % of the population voted in favour of a withdrawal. The news came as a shock all across the European Union, which was only slowly recovering from the worse economic crisis of its history.
Following this, AGE met its UK members on several occasions to explain what consequences Brexit for older persons in the United Kingdom (e.g. in January 2017). Although it was too early at that stage for an accurate assessment, we analyzed together the different options and the possible areas of concern.
And now? (update)
More than two years later and shortly before the Brexit comes into effect end of March 2019, the final negotiations are going on and it is still impossible to predict whether the UK will accept the withdrawal agreement negotiated with the EU or leave with no deal. It is therefore even more difficult to assess what will be the future UK-EU relationship and therefore what impact this will have on older citizens.
On 8 February 2019 to inform citizens across the EU, the European Commission released a document which explains the different steps of the negotiation process and the principles of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement. The paper mainly outlines EU priorities and the groups of citizens/areas covered by the agreement, including its concrete commercial, judicial and legal impacts. Download the Commission’s paper here
If the UK accepts the withdrawal agreement by 29 March 2019, there will be a transition period until end of 2020 (renewable once for one or two years) during which the post-Brexit UK-EU relationship will be clarified.
