Brexit: the winners and the losers
The United Kingdom left the European Union a few hours ago, this Friday, January 1, 2020. Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD AFP / File
By: Frédérique Lebel
5 mins
A hundred times shifted, and postponed, Brexit therefore comes into effect very practically on January 1.
The end of the European adventure for the British negotiated in a thick document of 1,246 pages… And the beginning of a new special relationship between the Island and the continent!
Publicity
Concretely, nothing will be really the same for entrepreneurs, truckers, students, expatriates ... Of course, the United Kingdom keeps access to the huge European market of 450 million consumers, just as Europeans will still be able to trade without quota or customs duty with the United Kingdom.
But the return of the border is not just a small symbol.
Exit the single market
, there will therefore be customs formalities on both sides of the border.
Phytosanitary inspections also for food and animals.
And who says control, therefore speaks of traffic jam risks.
The UK government has pledged £ 300million to help ports adjust.
On this January 1, traffic should be quiet.
But in the Kent region, where the busy M20 motorway is located, we prepared for the worst.
The British authorities have worked on scenarios of traffic jams for 7,000 trucks.
It is Operation Brock, and its movable barriers, that
Marie Billon
followed for us
.
►Also read:
Brexit: what changes (or not) for trade on January 1
And he is one of the big victims of this UK exit agreement.
London leaves the Erasmus student exchange program.
It is, however, without doubt one of the greatest European successes, which has enabled more than 9 million people to make exchanges in thirty years.
Excluding Erasmus, students will be considered as international students, the annual price of university fees, which could already reach 10,000 euros, could double or even triple.
For the Hungarian, Italian or French students that we interviewed, they will have to find other destinations from September 2021, or pay dearly.
35,000
European Erasmus students came each year to study in the UK and
17,000 Britons went to the continent.
Not profitable, the government of Boris Johnson estimated.
From now on, exchanges will still be possible but the costs will not be covered by the European agency.
The impact will also be terrible for universities.
Nick Hellman of the think tank on higher education Hepi, expressed his fears to
Marie Billon
.
And for the British, the government wants to establish a new international program called Alan Thuring, named after the famous British mathematician.
But for now it is a disappointment for Taia and Laura, a British student and mother, interviewed by
Sophia Khatsenkova.
►Also listen: The British in Greece faced with the consequences of Brexit
And the other big losers from this Brexit are British expatriates in Europe. Because with this exit from the EU, it is also the end of European citizenship
!
There are between 350 and 500,000 Britons in Spain.
Retirees, but also working people, binational couples, also worried about the choices they will have to make or which will be imposed on them.
Those who settled before January 1 will be able to continue to live on the Iberian Peninsula according to the conditions negotiated with their host country.
But this January 1 is also the start of a new points immigration system in the United Kingdom.
For Europeans, it will be necessary to prove income, a good command of English… and the Spanish spouses are not all in this case…
Report in Spain by Diane Cambon.
Freedom of movement is no longer
: you will have to show your passport again and apply for a visa if you want to stay for more than three months ... The procedure will affect all British and all Europeans except the Irish.
Emeline Vin our correspondent in Dublin
explains this peculiarity to us, the two countries concluded agreements for free movement, long before the existence of the common market or the European Union.
And if Brexit is a disaster for some, in other European countries we are rubbing our hands
.
Like the German city of Görlitz, located on the German-Polish border, which has launched a campaign of seduction among Poles living in the United Kingdom.
The explanations from Berlin, by
Julien
Mechaussie
...
And then we end this special Brexit show with
Italy, which hopes to attract the richest English
.
Since the
2016
referendum
, Britons abroad have jumped by a third.
And Italy took advantage of it.
In Milan, Franceline Beretti.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Brexit
European Union
United Kingdom
On the same subject
SPECIAL EDITION
Brexit: the UK opens a new page in its history, the British divided
Reportage
In the French village of Eymet, in the Dordogne, British people resigned to Brexit
Today the economy
Why Brexit threatens the prosperity of the City of London