Leaving the European Union

Summary:

When the National Assembly for Wales met for the first time on 12 May 1999, the United Kingdom (UK) had been a Member State of the European Union (EU) for over 26 years. For over 20 years, the Senedd existed in the context of EU membership. In June 2016, Wales voted to leave the EU by a margin of 52.5% to 47.5%. The referendum started the first phase of Brexit - a complex legislative process to extract a Member State from the EU for the first time. The second phase handled what came next – setting up a new UK-EU relationship that is still in its infancy today.

While these two key phases were playing out at a UK-EU level, the UK put new domestic arrangements in place for its internal market, intergovernmental relations and for the EU law that remained on the statute books. Leaving the EU significantly changed how law in Wales is made and how it works. It turned off the automatic application of EU law and removed the duty on Ministers to comply. It meant that international law replaced EU law as the UK’s main source of external law. Ministers were empowered to make changes to the EU law that remained, while the UK Internal Market Act 2020 and common frameworks added another important dimension to the post-Brexit landscape.

This feature presents a timeline of the process of leaving the EU at the Senedd. Each date on the timeline:

• summarises a key development;
• explains how it changed how law is made and how it works;
• confirms if the Senedd had a vote, and the vote results.