EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

The EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a free trade agreement signed on 30 December 2020, between the European Union (EU), the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the United Kingdom (UK). It provisionally applied from 1 January 2021, when the Brexit transition period ended, before formally entering into force on 1 May 2021, after the ratification processes on both sides were completed: the UK Parliament ratified on 30 December 2020; the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union ratified in late April 2021.

The agreement, which governs the relationship between the EU and the UK after Brexit, was concluded after eight months of negotiations. It provides for free trade in goods and limited mutual market access in services, as well as for cooperation mechanisms in a range of policy areas, transitional provisions about EU access to UK fisheries, and UK participation in some EU programmes. Compared to the UK's previous status as an EU member state, on 1 January 2021 the following ended as they are not incorporated in the TCA or the Brexit withdrawal agreement: free movement of persons between the parties; UK membership in the European Single Market and Customs Union; UK participation in most EU programmes; part of EU–UK law enforcement and security cooperation such as the access to real time crime data; defense and foreign policy cooperation; and the authority of the European Court of Justice in dispute settlement (except with respect to the Northern Ireland Protocol).

In addition, two other separate treaties were negotiated, signed, and ratified in parallel around the same time by the UK and the EU/Euratom: an agreement on exchange of classified information and another on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.