In the past week, we saw an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom finally reached on Brexit, bring the tortuous and tumultuous aftermath of the UK’s departure from the bloc to a close – at least for now.
It was a deal which took a decent while to come – indeed at times it seemed quite unlikely that a deal would even be reached in time, given that the Brexit transitory period ends on 1 January.
However last week a draft treaty – which is around 1,250 pages long - was finally agreed, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson proclaiming victory and describing the deal as a Christmas present for the country.
The 11th hour deal will no doubt have implications on the everyday lives of those in the UK and likewise those in the EU.
What’s certain is that the very existence of a deal is already better than the prospect of no-deal at all. The dramatic scenes seen at Dover, where trucks gathered in their thousands after France blocked entry to the country from the UK over a new strain of Covid-19 was perhaps a pre-cursor to the chaos that would have happened in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
Still, the effects of Brexit will no doubt be felt come the New Year. The Maltese government has admittedly ramped up its preparations for Brexit, with several campaigns highlighting what the effects of the UK’s exit could be and with new agreements and pieces of legislation on things like the residency of British nationals in Malta and the residency of Maltese in the UK through the EU Settlement Scheme.
As one would expect however, there are some points which should be clarified a bit further after the deal was signed.
First of all, while there will be no extra tariffs or quotas on good traded between the EU and the UK, there will be extra checks at borders – meaning that businesses which rely on transporting goods to and from the UK will have to be ready for the added delays.
Under the deal, there will no longer be automatic EU-recognition of professional qualifications such as doctors, nurses and architects. We know that there is a significant number of Maltese who choose to continue their studies at educational institutions within the UK, so this is certainly a point which requires clarification.
Also on the topic of education, one of the saddest parts of the deal is the news that the UK will be withdrawing from the Erasmus+ Programme – an incredibly significant programme which allows students to study abroad for a specific period during the course of their studies. It will be replaced by a UK-run project named after mathematician Alan Turing, but of course nobody knows just yet how this will work.
When details of this programme are announced however, the government should – if the programme permits it of course – look into some sort of membership to it in order for Maltese students to continue being able to have the opportunity to experience receiving an education in universities and other institutions across the UK.
In an interview with this newspaper today, the British High Commissioner said that the biggest issue now is to dispel the Brexit myths that are still circulating.
Indeed, the best thing that can be done at this stage is for clarity to be provided where needed – but as the New Year approaches and the effects of Brexit become truly official, it is perfectly agreeable to think that having a deal is better than having no deal – even if some concerns do remain.