The Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU on 31 January 2020

The United Kingdom will withdraw from the European Union and will be a third country as of 1 February 2020. Providing that the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement is completed, the transition period will start at that same moment in time. During the transition period, which ends on 31 December 2020, Union law, with a few limited exceptions, continues to be applicable to and in the United Kingdom.

All this must be clearly reflected by all Europa websites as of 1 February at 00.00 (CET).

To ensure that this happens in a timely and coherent manner, we would like to refer you to

1. The note from DG COMM of 23 November 2018 (ARES(2018)6012173), which set out the procedure to follow with regard to preparing and scheduling updates resulting from the United Kingdom becoming a third country.
2. The joint note from the Chief Negotiator and the acting Secretary-General of 7 January 2020 (Ares(2020)47572) which, e.g., explains the main elements of the Withdrawal Agreement and sets out some of the main operational consequences for Commission services. The note underscores that all services need to make sure that the information on their Europa web sites is up to date and clear as to the implications of the Withdrawal Agreement for their respective areas, including for the transition period.

Furthermore, please note that the text of the disclaimer remains unchanged:

"The Commission is in the process of updating some of the content on this website in light of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. If the site contains content that does not yet reflect the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, it is unintentional and will be addressed."

We would finally like to remind you that the implementation of the content updates as well as the publication of the disclaimer, is the responsibility of each website owner.

If you decide to use the scheduled publishing feature of the Europa Web Publishing Platform, you can consult the dedicated wiki page.

Permanence arrangements on 31 January

DG COMM will have a staff permanence for the weekend of 31 January.

Please ensure that in your services the necessary staff will be available to carry out this work. We would be grateful if you could communicate to us the contact details of your staff member(s) who will be on call ('de garde') in the office or elsewhere on the night in question.

Please send your reply to europamanagement@ec.europa.eu by 20 January COB at the latest.

For questions regarding the implementation of the disclaimer, the use of the scheduler, or anything else regarding the content changes, please consult the dedicated Brexit website updates wiki page for further information.

Should there be any new developments, we will keep you informed. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at europamanagement@ec.europa.eu

DG COMM