Aftermath of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum

• The "United Kingdom (UK) Cards and Payments - Opportunities and Risks to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
• The report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the UK's cards and payments industry.
• The report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the UK's cards and payments industry, including -
  Current and forecast values for each market in the UK's cards and payments industry, including debit, credit, and charge cards.
• Consumer card-not-present transactions between the UK and European Economic Area countries are currently charged 0.20% for debit cards and 0.30% for credit cards.

• MANCHESTER, UK / ACCESSWIRE / December 24, 2020 / British cyber technology company VST Enterprises (VSTE) has offered to step in and assist the UK Government with a cyber technology solution that could help end the UK Freight ban into Europe.
• The UK Freight ban has also highlighted yet again the need for a cross-border secure digital health passport to provide support in a pandemic and beyond.
• The V-Health Passport(TM) is the worlds most secure health passport using next generation VCode(R) code scanning cyber security technology.
• VST Enterprises whose VCode(R) technology provides the secure coding element behind the V-Health Passport(TM) system can also assist the UK Government with Frictionless Borders post BREXIT.

• Sabio Group , Europes leading full service CX provider, has today set out the key elements that CX teams need to address as they prepare to embrace the impact of a No Deal Brexit from January 2021.
• Sabios new white paper, sets out the need for a Brexit Service Strategy that directly addresses customer concerns about potential post-Brexit disruptions.
• sets out both the scale of the task ahead, and clear guidance on how to plan your CX service strategy for a No Deal Brexit.
• Sabio Group, which includes Sabio, Dvelp, flexAnswer and Coverage Group, delivers solutions and services that seamlessly combine digital and human interactions to support outstanding customer experiences.

This paper provides an update on the UK-EU future relationship negotiations following intensified negotiations in June and July 2020. It explores the prospects for an agreement in time for the end of the post-Brexit transition period on 31 December

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Negotiating timeline

• The deadline for extending the post-Brexit transition period in the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) passed at the end of June.
• Negotiations began in early March, and four full rounds of negotiations had taken place by early June.
• The UK and EU agreed to intensify negotiations in June, with weekly face-to- face talks taking place in late June and July.
• A draft EU ratification timeline indicates that the EU would like an agreed legal text ready by the beginning of October, as there will need to be time for legal and linguistic revisions.
• The European Parliament would need to give consent to the agreement, with a vote on this expected in December.

The negotiations

• The initial UK and EU negotiating positions are outlined in Commons Library briefing paper 8834, The UK-EU future relationship negotiations: process and issues.
• Developments in the first three rounds of negotiations are summarised in Commons Library briefing paper 8923 The UK-EU future relationship: the March 2020 EU draft treatyand negotiations update.
• In May, the UK Government published ten draft treaty texts for the separate agreements it envisages with the EU.
• Following the fourth round of negotiations in early June, the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that there had been no substantial progress.
• This was the high level June meeting envisaged by the PD to take stock of progress in the negotiations with the aim of moving them forward.
• He said his negotiating mandate had been set by the EU Member States, but that he had room for manoeuvre in the negotiations and was ready to use this to seek out compromise.
• The European Parliament adopted a recommendation on the UK-EU negotiations on 18 June, expressing support for the approach taken by Mr Barnier in the talks.
• He said the EU was ready to find solutions, but that the UK had not shown a corresponding level of engagement.

Is an agreement possible?

• Following the fifth round at the end of July, it was reported that the UK and EU had started work on a text-based negotiation.
• He said that the UK had scaled back some of its aspirations in the trade talks and was now seeking what amounted to a low-quality, low-profile agreement.
• This would still provide for tariff-free and quota-free trade access to the EU market.
• Having reached agreement on the future EU budget and recovery programme on 21 July, Member State governments would also be able to give greater attention to reaching an agreement.
• However, the EU has complained that the UK has not revealed what its future state aid/subsidies scheme will look like.
• This had been made possible by the EUs willingness to explore options for keeping the CJEU out of arrangements.
• But this also meant that the depth of future co-operation would be restricted, with the UK losing access to EU law enforcement databases.