What the Latest Brexit Agreement Means for Travel and Tourism

The European Union leaders last weekend approved the UK's Brexit deal at a summit in Brussels. The deal nominally brought to an end months of negotiations and will not only help frame the divorce but also the future relations between the two entities. For those who haven't been paying close attention, that would seem to be that, but in reality we face a few more weeks— and potentially a much longer period — of uncertainty. Where are we now? The UK and EU have rubber stamped both a withdrawal agreement, which sets out the exit terms, and a political declaration, which deals with the future relationship. The withdrawal document includes details such as the financial settlement or divorce bill (there's no exact figure given but it is likely to be around $50 billion or £39 billion) and perhaps most contentiously what will happen with the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. What happens next? Anyone thinking that it is all over would be wrong. The UK parliament still has to agree the deal. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but in this case Prime Minister Theresa May has a couple of big problems. She called a risky election in 2017, which actually reduced the Conservative Party's majority. She was then forced to agree to an alliance with a small party in Northern Ireland to keep power. The other big issue is that for a variety of reasons, many of her Conservative colleagues hate the deal agreed to with the EU. Parliament will likely vote on whether to approve the deal in the next few weeks. In the meantime May is busy trying to sell the deal to the country – in reality her political future depends on getting it through. The European Parliament — the third of the EU's political bodies alongside the Commission and the Council — also still needs to vote on the deal. What ha