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-end to free movement of EU citizens to the UK and of UK citizens to the EU
-both sides want to preserve visa-free travel for short-term visits but visas could be introduced for longer stays.

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Brexit deal explained: backstops, trade and citizens' rights

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The EU has agreed on May's 585-page withdrawal agreement. Here are the main issues

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-The UK will remain under European Court of Justice (ECJ) jurisdiction during the transition.
-A joint UK-EU committee will be set up to try to resolve any disputes on the interpretation of the withdrawal agreement.
- After transition period, in case the backstop is triggered : arbitration panel.

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-for goods and services: will depend on a future trade deal
-finance: London will access EU markets thanks to passporting rights: equivalences determined by EU commission

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-a separate agreement will need to be reached on access to EU fishing in UK waters.
the UK will leave the CAP in March 2019

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-EU's four freedoms : the free movement of goods, services, capital and people.

-sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

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If no deal that avoids a hard border between NI and the Republic of Ireland is found before the end of the transition period, the backstop will be triggered.
BP:
- a single customs territory between the EU and the whole UK.
-NI will be in a deeper customs relationship with the EU than the rest of the UK; +more closely aligned with the EU single market rules
-The UK will not be able to leave the backstop without the agreement of the EU.
-it can gon on until 20XX

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The UK will pay £ 39 bn to the EU. Ti corresponds to pas commitments made by the UK and to the financial contribution it needs to do during the transition period

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It begins on 29 March 2019 and lasts until 31 December 2020.
The UK will need to abide by all EU rules, but will lose membership of its institutions.
It can be extended up to the end of 2022 Both the UK and EU must agree to any extension

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UK citizens in the EU, and EU citizens in the UK, will retain their residency rights after Brexit. Citizens

who take up residency in another EU country during the transition period (including the UK) will be allowed to stay in that country after the transition.Anyone that stays in the same EU country for five years will be allowed to apply for permanent residence.

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The draft Brexit withdrawal agreement stands at 599 pages long. It sets out how the UK leaves the European Union, scheduled for 29 March 2019.

Chris Morris, from BBC Reality Check, has been going through it in detail and pulls out the key points from the agreement and what they mean.

Transition

The transition period (which the UK government calls "implementation period") begins on 29 March 2019 and lasts until 31 December 2020.

The UK will need to abide by all EU rules, but will lose membership of its institutions.

The draft withdrawal agreement says the transition can be extended, but only for a period of one or two years (in other words up to the end of 2022 at most).

Both the UK and EU must agree to any extension and the decision must be taken before 1 July 2020.

Chris Morris's analysis: The details of transition aren't new but they are no less awkward for that. At a time when the government wants to trumpet that it is taking back control (its slogan, not mine), it will be ceding control for 21 months and very possibly longer. There will be no UK presence in the European Parliament, at the top table of the European Commission or in the European Court of Justice.

The UK will have no formal say in making or amending EU rules and regulations, but it will have to follow them to the letter. The great advantage of transition, of course, is that it buys more time for businesses and governments to prepare for a new regime, and it smoothes the path out of the EU. Transition also gives the UK continued access to EU databases on crucial issues like security while a future relationship is negotiated.

Money

The draft agreement sets out the calculations for the financial settlement (or "divorce bill") that the UK will need to pay to the EU to settle all of its obligations.

While no figure appears in the document, it is expected to be at least £39bn and it will be paid over a number of years.

Part of that money will be the financial contribution that the UK has to make during the transition period. This year the UK's contribution to the EU budget is forecast to be a net £10.8bn.

If the transition is extended, there will have to be additional UK payments to the EU budget, which will be agreed separately.

Chris Morris's analysis: It seems a long time now since the size of the "divorce bill" was the big issue that was never going to be resolved, but the government knew that without a financial settlement, progress on other issues would be impossible.

Money remains a cause of controversy, though, because many Brexit supporters hate the fact that large sums will be handed over without any cast-iron guarantee about the nature of the UK's future trade relationship with the EU. Any refusal to pay, on the other hand, would sour relations and could - in extremis - end up in court.

All you need to know about Brexit

Q&A: The Irish border Brexit backstop

Your guide to Brexit jargon

What is a 'Canada-style' trade deal?

Citizens' rights

This is broadly unchanged from the initial draft of the withdrawal agreement which came out in March.

UK citizens in the EU, and EU citizens in the UK, will retain their residency and social security rights after Brexit.

Citizens who take up residency in another EU country during the transition period (including the UK of course) will be allowed to stay in that country after the transition.

Anyone that stays in the same EU country for five years will be allowed to apply for permanent residence.

Chris Morris's analysis: The European Parliament has promised to make citizens' rights its top priority. But while politicians on all sides are telling citizens that they want them to stay, the Brexit process has caused an enormous amount of anxiety and uncertainty.

British citizens in other EU countries, for example, still don't know whether they will be able to work across borders in the future, because their right to reside only applies to the specific country where they live. Recognition of professional qualifications, and access to university education on the same terms they have now, are also unresolved issues.

Northern Ireland/the backstop

If no long-term trade deal has been agreed by the end of 2020 that avoids a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and if there is no extension to the transition period, then a backstop consisting of "a single customs territory between the (European) Union and the United Kingdom" will be triggered.

Northern Ireland will be in a deeper customs relationship with the EU than the rest of the UK; it will also be more closely aligned with the rules and regulations of the EU single market.

As long as the backstop is in operation, the UK will be subject to "level playing field conditions", to ensure it cannot gain a competitive advantage while remaining in the same customs territory.

The UK cannot leave the backstop independently, it needs to be decided together with the EU.

Chris Morris's analysis: The single customs territory is basically another name for a temporary customs union and, if it were needed, it would ensure that completely frictionless trade could continue across the Irish border. But it would also prevent the UK implementing any trade deals with other countries around the world that involve removing tariffs on goods.

That upsets supporters of Brexit, especially as there is no guaranteed route out of this backstop unless the EU gives its consent. The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland was the toughest part of the draft agreement to negotiate and, now it has been published, it has triggered a series of government resignations.

Fishing

The agreement says that a separate agreement will need to be reached on access to EU fishing in UK waters.

The document says: "The Union and the United Kingdom shall use their best endeavours to conclude and ratify 'an agreement' on access to waters and fishing opportunities."

Chris Morris's analysis: Fishing is always a hot button issue, even though in most countries the fishing sector forms a tiny part of the economy. Fishing has been left out of plans for a single customs territory because several countries objected to the idea that UK fish produce would be allowed unimpeded access to EU markets, without any corresponding guarantee that EU boats would be granted access to UK fishing waters.

It's an example of how negotiations on a temporary customs union were bound to throw up a host of complications - and a reminder of how tough negotiations on a future trade agreement are likely to be.

Laws and disputes

The UK will remain under European Court of Justice (ECJ) jurisdiction during the transition.

A joint UK-EU committee will be set up to try to resolve any disputes on the interpretation of the withdrawal agreement.

If the backstop is triggered and the UK forms a single customs territory with the EU, the ECJ will not be able to resolve disputes between the UK and EU directly.

Instead, the whole dispute resolution procedure will be backed up by an arbitration panel. However, if any dispute rests on the interpretation of EU law, the arbitration panel refers the case to the ECJ for a binding decision.

Chris Morris's analysis: Most of this draft agreement deals with matters of EU law, so the European Court of Justice casts a long shadow. The arbitration system for resolving disputes creates a semblance of independence and ECJ rulings will no longer have direct effect in the UK once transition is over.

That is an important point of principle for the UK government, but the European Court will continue to have indirect influence over the UK for many years to come.

What else is in it?

Elsewhere in the agreement there are protocols on Gibraltar and the British military bases in Cyprus.

There's a provision that the UK will withdraw from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), which relates to how nuclear material is handled.

EU-approved geographical indications, protecting approved names like "Welsh Lamb" or "Parma Ham" remain.

Alongside the withdrawal agreement, there's the outline of the political declaration, setting out what the future UK/EU relationship might look like. It's currently only seven pages long but it's being fleshed out in negotiations that are still continuing in the run-up to the EU's Brexit summit on 25 November.

Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter

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The withdrawal agreement - what it all means

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The draft Brexit withdrawal agreement stands at 599 pages long. It sets out how the UK leaves the European Union, scheduled for 29 March 2019. Chris Morris, from BBC Reality Check, has been going through it in detail and pulls out the key points from the agreement and what they mean.

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The draft political declaration on the future relationship between the EU and the UK, after Brexit, is out. Theresa May describes it as the right deal for the UK.

A few points to remember...

This is not a legally binding document.

It's not very long either, but it has grown from last week's seven-page outline to 26 pages. It sits alongside the 585-page Draft Withdrawal Agreement (which will be legally binding if it gets ratified).

This is also a draft, agreed by negotiators, but it still needs to be approved by the leaders of all 28 EU countries at a summit scheduled to take place on Sunday. Don't expect major changes.

Formal negotiations on everything it contains can only begin after Brexit has actually happened - currently after 29 March 2019.

It contains plenty of aspirations involving shared interests, close partnerships and ambitious co-operation, but many of the details are still to come.

Here's an initial look at what's in the text:

Future relationship

A reminder that this really is about everything, not just about trade: the entire scope of the future relationship between the UK and its nearest neighbours.

Both sides want that relationship to be as close and co-operative as possible but that aspiration will be tested in the years ahead.

Again, it's worth emphasising that this is not a legally binding document, so there are no guarantees about what the post-Brexit world will look like.

And no-one can say for certain how long it will all take to negotiate.

Bottom lines

The bottom line of both parties is included early on.

Anything that is negotiated must be consistent with the EU's four freedoms - the free movement of goods, services, capital and people.

And nothing will be agreed that threatens the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.

As we've seen for months now, the issue of the Irish border is where the combination of these core principles becomes most complicated.

Trade in goods

So trade in goods should be "as close as possible", but that's not the same as being frictionless.

It leaves a lot of wriggle room in negotiations, with no guarantee of the final outcome.

The two sides are committing themselves to an "ambitious, wide-ranging and balanced" economic partnership, based on a comprehensive free trade agreement.

But there is also repeated emphasis that there must be a level playing field, which ensures open and fair competition.

The more economic rights you retain, the EU is reminding the UK, the more obligations to which you have to sign up.

Customs

When the outline of this draft emerged last week, this was a notion that raised alarm bells for many supporters of Brexit.

Dominic Raab mentioned it in his resignation statement. Their fear, which will not be dispelled by this draft text, is that temporary customs arrangements could easily turn into some form of permanent customs union, preventing the UK from doing its own trade deals on goods around the world.

The government denies this, and argues that there is nothing wrong in wanting ambitious customs arrangements in the future, including the need to avoid checks on what are known as "rules of origin".

The declaration also mentions explicitly an "independent trade policy" for the UK in the future.

Irish border

We are, this emphasises, open to any solution that will avoid the proposed backstop solution, to keep the Irish border open.

That includes technological and other solutions that critics of the Brexit negotiations say have been ignored for too long.

The trouble is that technological solutions that avoid the need for any border infrastructure are not in operation anywhere in the world.

Regulations

UK officials see this as a key sentence, which suggests there is plenty of room for manoeuvre in the negotiations to come.

It makes clear, they argue, that it is not the case that the UK can only have either a basic free trade agreement (like Canada) or membership of the single market (like Norway), with nothing in-between.

But none of the language here commits the EU to anything specific.

Trade in services

As expected, the regulation of financial services will be based on a system of "equivalence" and the aim is to negotiate the details in this key sector before the end of June 2020.

There's nothing in the language here to suggest that the UK will get better terms than any other third country dealing with the EU - but that will be a key negotiating aim.

There are also plenty of aspirational words on "ambitious and comprehensive" plans for the service sector in general, but there is an awful lot to negotiate.

Digital commerce

There are plenty of nods towards the way the world economy is changing, and the importance of comprehensive agreements on data.

The UK hopes that in the negotiations to come, it can be well positioned to take advantage of new technologies and the digital economy.

But the EU has already made it clear that the UK cannot expect to have the same access to all EU databases - in various economic and security areas - as it would have as an EU member state.

Freedom of movement

This fulfils the prime minister's pledge that the UK will take back control of its borders and free movement of EU citizens to the UK will come to an end. But it means, of course, that free movement for UK citizens travelling to the EU will also stop.

The document says both sides want to preserve visa-free travel for short-term visits (don't worry about your holidays) but it suggests by implication that visas could be introduced for longer stays.

Fishing rights

There is neutral language here, including the "best endeavours" principle that commits both sides to doing everything they can to reach a deal.

But that disguises the fact that there are still deep disagreements on fishing, and on getting the right balance between access for UK produce to EU markets, and access for EU boats to UK fishing waters.

Expect this one to run and run, because the UK is not alone in having a vocal fishing lobby with more political power than its overall contribution to the economy might suggest.

Security

There is a lot in this document on security - both on internal police co-operation and on broader foreign policy and defence co-operation.

The EU needs the UK in many of these areas, but the draft makes clear that - on internal security matters in particular - there is a variety of legal and technical issues to overcome.

We can expect, though, that UK and EU foreign policy will be co-ordinated as closely as possible in the future.

Disputes and courts

Rather like the Draft Withdrawal Agreement, the political declaration envisages a system of dispute resolution involving a joint committee and an arbitration panel.

But once again, on matters of EU law (and there will be a lot of that involved in any future relationship) the final word will rest with the European Court of Justice.

The government will point out that after Brexit the direct jurisdiction of the ECJ in the UK will come to an end.

Timing

There is a plethora of other issues in the draft document that this article hasn't covered: transport, energy, intellectual property and so on.

Both sides say they hope all these issues and more can be wrapped up by the end of 2020. It's an ambitious timetable.
Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter

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Reality Check: What's in the Brexit political declaration?

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The draft political declaration on the future relationship between the EU and the UK, after Brexit, is out. Theresa May describes it as the right deal for the UK. A few points to remember... This is not a legally binding document. It's not very long either, but it has grown from last week's seven-page outline to 26 pages.

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During the transition period:
the backstop plan:

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Two leading cabinet ministers have said that the UK will not remain in the single market or customs union during the transitional period planned for immediately after leaving the European Union.

The UK government is now set to spell out its aims for new customs arrangements.

But what is the difference between a free trade area, single market and a customs union?

SINGLE MARKET

You can be in the EU's Single Market, but not the EU, this is what Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein do.

The European Union's single market is perhaps the most ambitious type of trade co-operation. That's because as well as eliminating tariffs, quotas or taxes on trade, it also includes the free movement of goods, services, capital and people.

That is why there has been no limit on the number of French people who can come to the UK, or the number of British people who can live in Spain - but there are limits on Turks or Ukrainians, for example.

Also, a single market strives to remove so-called "non-tariff barriers" - different rules on packaging, safety and standards and many others are abolished and the same rules and regulations apply across the area.

Financial services

There are EU-wide regulations covering a whole host of industries and products on everything from food standards and the use of chemicals to working hours and health and safety. It is an attempt to create a level playing field and a single market; this does not happen in a free trade zone.

For goods, the single market was largely completed in 1992, but the market for services remains a work in progress a quarter of a century later. The EU has promised to introduce it many times, but several countries have dragged their feet and it is much more complicated than creating a single market for say, cars or computers. Even so, the City of London dominates financial services in the EU not least because it can do business in every member country.

The EU is therefore not just a free trade area - it is a single market.

But to stay in the single market, countries have to allow the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. That last one means immigration is difficult if not impossible to control - although the UK might get a special deal to allow some limits.

Membership of the single market also normally involves making annual payments towards the EU's budget and accepting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, which would cross quite a few red lines for many Brexiteers.

CUSTOMS UNION

Turkey is part of a customs union with the EU but not in the single market. The deal does not cover food or agriculture, services or government procurement.

The EU is not only a single market - it is also a customs union. The countries club together and agree to apply the same tariffs to goods from outside the union.

Once goods have cleared customs in one country, they can be shipped to others in the union without further tariffs being imposed.

If the UK left the Customs Union but stayed in the Single market, our exporters would have to contend with what are called 'rules of origin'.

These rules are designed to demonstrate that goods that legally originated in the UK - and did not contain more than the maximum permitted level of parts and components from elsewhere - qualify for duty-free entry into the EU.
Fish factor
That could be complicated for many companies that import components from around the world to put into finished products made in the UK.

Also services are a huge part of the British economy, 78%, and are not totally covered by a customs union because they tend to face "non tariff" barriers.

Still the UK could opt to leave the single market but stay in the customs union, but that does mean it couldn't negotiate free trade deals with other countries, the EU does that.

It might also mean paying money to the EU and accepting ECJ judgements when they relate to trade and it is unlikely to cover farm produce or fish since the UK would not be in the Common Agricultural Policy or Common Fisheries Policy.

A customs union does however have one big advantage, it means the Ireland/Northern Ireland border would remain open and easy to cross.

FREE TRADE AREA

If we left both the single market and the customs union we could negotiate a free trade deal with the EU. A free trade area is one where there are no tariffs or taxes or quotas on goods and/or services from one country entering another.

The negotiations to establish them can take years and there are normally exceptions.

So agriculture and fisheries might be exempted, certain industries protected and some goods may not be covered.

Irish issues

Services like banking and education also pose a problem in many free trade deals, as the barrier to trading services are not normally tariffs, but so called non-tariff barriers like different rules, standards and qualifications.

So the negotiations can be very long and complicated and the result can still leave many barriers to trade.

There is a free trade zone in Europe and we helped to create it: EFTA, the European Free Trade Association. It counts Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein as members, but they now have a very close relationship with the EU; all but Switzerland are part of the single market.

The EU also has free trade arrangements with many other countries around the world; so it is not against negotiating one with the UK in principle, but compared with staying in the single market or the customs union this would be the "hardest" form of Brexit. It would also almost certainly mean border controls including between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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Two leading cabinet ministers have said that the UK will not remain in the single market or customs union during the transitional period planned for immediately after leaving the European Union. The UK government is now set to spell out its aims for new customs arrangements.

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-what it covers:

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595 pages

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Brexit deal explained: backstops, trade and citizens' rights

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The EU has agreed on May's 585-page withdrawal agreement. Here are the main issues