Irlands premiärminister om utspelet: ”Som i skolan”

Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British" and "exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Following a June 2016 referendum, in which 52% voted to leave, the UK government formally announced the country's withdrawal in March 2017, beginning the Brexit process. The UK withdrew from the EU at 11 p.m. GMT on 31 January 2020, beginning a transition period that is set to end on 31 December 2020. During the 11-month transition period, the UK and EU will negotiate their future relationship. The UK remains subject to European Union law and remains part of EU Customs Union and European Single Market during the transition period, but is no longer represented in the EU's political bodies or institutions.Withdrawal was advocated by Eurosceptics and opposed by pro-Europeanists, both of whom spanned the political spectrum. The UK joined the European Communities (EC) (principally the European Economic Community (EEC)) in 1973, with continued membership endorsed in a 1975 referendum. In the 1970s and 1980s, withdrawal from the EC was advocated mainly by the political left, e.g. in the Labour Party's 1983 election manifesto. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty founded the EU, but was not put to a referendum. The eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party led a rebellion over ratification of the treaty and, with the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the cross-party People's Pledge campaign, pressured Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on continued EU membership, which was held in June 2016. Cameron, who had campaigned to remain, resigned after the result and was succeeded by Theresa May. On 29 March 2017, the UK government formally began the withdrawal process by invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union with permission from Parliament. May called a snap general election in June 2017, which resulted in a Conservative minority government supported by the Democratic Unionist Party. UK–EU withdrawal negotiations began later that month. The UK negotiated to leave the EU customs union and single market. This resulted in the November 2018 withdrawal agreement, but the UK parliament voted against ratifying it three times. The Labour Party wanted any agreement to maintain a customs union, while many Conservatives opposed the agreement's financial settlement, as well as the "Irish backstop" designed to prevent border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party, and others sought to reverse Brexit through a proposed second referendum. In March 2019, the UK parliament voted for May to ask the EU to delay Brexit until April, and then later October. Having failed to get her agreement approved, May resigned as prime minister in July and was succeeded by Boris Johnson. He sought to replace parts of the agreement and vowed to leave the EU by the new deadline. On 17 October 2019, the UK government and EU agreed a revised withdrawal agreement, with new arrangements for Northern Ireland. Parliament approved the agreement for further scrutiny, but rejected passing it into law before 31 October deadline, and forced the government (through the 'Benn Act') to ask for a third Brexit delay. An early general election was then held on 12 December. The Conservatives won a large majority in that election, with Johnson declaring that the UK would leave the EU in early 2020. The withdrawal agreement was ratified by the UK on 23 January, and by the EU on 30 January, and entered into force on 31 January.Many effects of Brexit depend on how closely the UK will be tied to the EU, or whether the transition period expires without terms being agreed to (a "no-deal Brexit"). The broad consensus among economists was that Brexit will likely harm the UK's economy and reduce its real per capita income in the medium term and long term, and that the referendum itself damaged the economy. The IMF in January 2020, however, reversed its predictions from 2016, forecasting the UK will outperform the EU in the two years following Brexit, having already done so in 2019. Brexit is likely to reduce immigration from European Economic Area (EEA) countries to the UK, and poses challenges for UK higher education, academic research and security. Following Brexit, EU law and the EU Court of Justice will no longer have supremacy over UK laws or its Supreme Court, except to a temporary extent agreed upon in a withdrawal agreement. The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 retains relevant EU law as domestic law, which the UK could then amend or repeal.