Brexit— it has a word we have heard for years, but as Americans, not something most of us were too familiar with and something many people had never even heard of until it flooded the news in 2016. This is when the United Kingdom formally held a referendum to determine whether they should leave the European Union— a group of 28 nations formed to enact free trade and travel across much of Europe. “The referendum turnout was very high at 72%, with more than 30 million people voting – 17.4 million people opting for Brexit” BBC. As this news first broke three and a half years ago, many have been left wondering what will really come out of this whole Brexit deal, and why this has not come to a conclusion already. However, despite being the process being more complicated than the United Kingdom initially thought, we could be seeing an end to the negations by the end of this month.
Conflicting ideas about how Brexit should be handled amongst British Parliament is the main reason as to why this has become such a drawn out process. With some people disagreeing on the propositions of the new trade laws and others opposing the exit of the European Union altogether, it has been difficult to come to conclusive agreements. Main topics of concern revolve around the rights of citizens of Britain who live in other parts of Europe, and how much it will formally cost to go through with the departure. On top of this, Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would be stepping down from her position in May of 2019, leaving the Conservative Party with little form of leadership until Boris Johnson was officially elected to her position in July. (inews).
However, amidst the numerous delays and backstops, and all of the other complications that have left the United Kingdom wondering where their nation will stand with the rest of the world, Boris Johnson has been promising to “get Brexit done” “get Brexit done” and that day could finally come January 31st. By this date, Britain will officially enter a transition period of around eleven months, where trade agreements will be similar to how they were in the past to give people time to adjust to the new circumstances. Despite the tremendous progress in the Brexit negations recently, there is still a lot left to be discussed and finalized before we hear an end of the situation.