Latest Developments on Brexit

The UK is all set to deliver first stage Brexit on January 31, 2020, and then fall into a 11-months long transition period, in which both sides have to complete a future comprehensive agreement ranging from the border, trade to fishing. Also, it is widely expected that if the past three and half years post the EU referendum, that took place in June 2016, were bad the next couple of months are going to be worse and could fuel big economic swings and the same could happen to the stock markets.

PM Johnson announces "global talent visa" to be launched post-Brexit

PM Johnson-led the UK government has vowed to bring a "global talent visa" on February 20, 2020, to attract mathematician, researchers and scientists to come to Britain. Also, he has not set any limit on how many people could fly to the UK under this global talent visa.

He also added that his government is creating a £300m package for research into advanced mathematics and planning to double funding for new PhDs and to spur the number of mathematics fellowships and research projects.

With four days left for Brexit, PM Johnson said that as Britain delivers the phase-1 level of Brexit, his government is open to the most talented minds across the world and will stand firm with them in order to turn their ideas into reality.

The new talent visa is the replacement of old one, in which only 2000 talented individuals per year were allowed to enter the UK to pursue their research work, but the applications received were far below the 2000/- per year threshold. However, a single market and free travel between EU-UK may come to an end, and there may be a situation in future that applications surge well above the erstwhile threshold target of 2000.

The global talent visa is sort of a replacement of old-one "exceptional talent" visa channel, which allows the applicant to be endorsed by the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Academy, Tech Nation or Arts Council England.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti Patel termed the new route as the "decisive move" to leverage services of the number of top researchers from across the world given the fast track mode of entry to the UK.

However, Liberal Democrats said that the erstwhile threshold never been filled completely in the past, so this amendment is more cosmetic and a political stunt.

Also, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine commented that "a name changes of a visa and removing the cap which has never been hit, is not a very serious plan".

However, earlier EU citizens are were required to come through a visa route to do research and PHDs, but things would be different post Brexit Transition period which is December 31, 2020. And, free movement between the UK and European Union may come to an end after Brexit transition period gets over.

PM Johnson’s government also said that they would bring in Australia-style point-based system by January 2021.Â

However, PM Johnson has sent a positive and strategically addressed concerns of EU citizens over impact of Brexit on Britain's participation in the international programmes, and through this new route visa route, the UK government claims that this system has been launched to ensure UK-based research projects hire the best talent in the field of mathematics, research and PhD programmes.

Sunday, which was yesterday, come with a big win for the research organisations and researchers who had been lobbying the government for a long time to consider a fast-track visa system for leading researchers, to take out the risks about what they feared would be a brain drain post UK’s crashing out of the European Union bloc.

Prof Sir Venki Ramakrishnan| President of the Royal Society welcomed the announcement and said that the new global talent visa route would help the UK to attract talented researchers and specialists from across the world - and at all stages of their careers. Also, what is good for science is good for everybody and this can help the UK to get rid of climate change problems and cure diseases which may be associated with it.

Prof Venki also thanked the British government for paying heed to the research community and said that, this is a kick start in creating a visa system that the country actually needs for enticement of global scientific talent. And it is really welcoming, faster and more flexible, and has taken care of the long-term aspirations of scientists and their families.

 However, this decision is primarily introduced to alleviate the concerns which are clouding the minds of EU-based researchers about how they could move to the UK-based for research projects post the Brexit event as in the erstwhile visa system there were only 2000 researchers could come to the UK per year for pursuing their research work. But there is no such threshold and an increase in funding of £300m for research into advanced mathematics and planning to double funding for new PhDs would also attract new researchers to the UK.

European Union asked its allies to treat the UK as bloc member post Brexit

The EU bloc is all set to talk to its partners around the world this week with a strange request to consider the UK temporarily as its member country, even though it will crash out of the bloc on January 31, 2020.

This move by EU proves how the UK and the EU will be in unplumbed territory post-Brexit day, falling into an 11-months long transition period in which Britain will still be the part of the EU law and regulations and within the EU's single market and customs union.

This request from Brussels suggests that there’s little that would change post-Brexit between the EU citizens, travellers and businesses between Brexit event and the Brexit transition end at the end of 2020. However, post Brexit day there will be the departure of UK members from the European Parliament and the end of an era where there will be no representation of British members in the EU’s other institutions and agencies.

However, it will jeopardize hundreds of international deals negotiated by the EU bloc with other countries across the world- deals which cover everything from trade relations to civil aviation. Meanwhile, both the blocs said that they do not see any problem; however, there are possibilities that the situation could be battled out in court. However, it seems that the 11-month negotiation window looks too short for concluding a comprehensive trade agreement.

Meanwhile, the UK government has already secured 20 trade agreements including between South Korea and Switzerland, but many other replacement deals are still under pipeline, including with big partners like Canada and Japan.