Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Tuesday 13th February 2018

As the Prime Minister said in Florence ‘the United Kingdom will cease to be a member of the European Union on 29th March 2019.’ An implementation period does not mean postponing Brexit.

The Government’s position has been very clear - the country voted to leave the EU, and there must be no attempts to remain inside the EU, no attempts to rejoin it through the back door, and no second referendum.

We are delivering on the decision of the British people; this does not
change because of the implementation period.

A strictly time-limited implementation period will form a sound basis for
the UK’s future prosperity, delivering certainty to individuals and
businesses as we move towards our future relationship. It will enable us
to exit the EU in a smooth and orderly way, with minimum disruption for
businesses and citizens.

To provide this certainty, the implementation period will be based on the
existing structure of EU rules and regulations. But it is important that we
make sure UK interests are represented during the period. As such, we
want to agree with the EU a way of discussing any new laws that are
brought in, if we think they would be harmful to our interests. This would
help ensure the implementation period operates smoothly, allowing us to
resolve any issues promptly.

We have been clear that this period should be guided by how long it will
take to prepare and implement the new processes required for when we
leave the EU. At the moment, this points to a period of around two
years.

The implementation period will not delay our leaving the EU - we will
leave on 29th March 2019. This is absolutely necessary as the EU can
only legally conclude our future partnership once we are no longer a
Member State.

In addition, it is only once we have left the EU that we can take
advantage of our status as an independent trading nation. During the
implementation period, we will be able negotiate and sign new trade
deals for the first time in more than 40 years. These deals will not be
brought into effect until after the implementation period has concluded.
The petition references ‘paying billions of pounds to the EU whilst we
stay.’ The United Kingdom will cease to be a member of the European
Union on 29th March 2019. An implementation period does not change
this. We have agreed a fair financial settlement with the EU. We will
honour our share of the commitments made during our membership but
will see the end of vast sums of money going to the EU every year. Soon
we will see significant savings from our payments to the EU compared to
what we would have given had we stayed in.

Department for Exiting the European Union