During the meeting on September 28, the Council adopted a regulation (already approved by the European Parliament on September 15) establishing the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), a fund designed to help member states tackle the negative impact of Brexit. The reserve, set up as a one-off emergency instrument in place for the 2020-2023 period with a total budget of €5.47 billion, will support public and private businesses facing disruption of trade flows, including new costs for custom checks and administrative procedures.

As the fund deals with an unprecedented situation, member states will have the flexibility to decide on the best actions to take to counter various negative consequences. To allow member states to act rapidly, the larger part of resources (€4.3 billion) will be distributed in pre-financing in three annual tranches (2021, 2022 and 2023), while the remaining resources will be made available in 2025, following an in-depth review of the expenditure and the submission, by each member state, of an application for a financial contribution from the reserve.

The distribution per member state is made considering criteria such as the trade in goods and services with the UK, the fishing activities in the UK economic zone, and eventually the presence of regional coastal communities bordering the UK. Based on such criteria, the major beneficiaries of this new fund are Ireland (€1.16 billion), the Netherlands (€886 million), France (€735 million), and Germany (€646 million), but all member states are eligible for support from the reserve.

The regulation and the new Brexit Adjustment Reserve will enter into force on the day after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, probably in the first half of October.

Image © Council of the EU, 2021