Let us first know what the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement stands for, before learning about the transition period.
The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement is a treaty between the European Union, European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the United Kingdom signed on 24th January 2020, setting the terms of the withdrawal of the U.K. from the EU and Euratom. Euratom is an international organization established by the Euratom Treaty with the purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe. It is legally distinct from the EU.
The Treaty resulted from the Brexit negotiations, which were endorsed by the leaders of the 27 remaining EU countries and the then British Government led by Prime Minister Theresa May. The original version of the agreement was rejected by the House of Commons on three occasions, which led to the resignation of Theresa May as prime minister of the U. K. and the appointing of Boris Johnson as the new prime minister on 23rd July 2019. Under Johnson’s governance, a renegotiated version of the agreement was published a year later, on 17th October 2019, and came into force on 31st January 2020.
The Brexit transition period, which extended from January until 31st December 2020, was designed to provide time for the new relationship to take form. During this transition period, U.K. remained in the single market to ensure frictionless trade until a long-term relationship was agreed upon.
On 24th December 2020, the EU and U.K. negotiators reached a deal on the new relationship to be followed by the two parties. The EU and the U.K. have set out the terms of this deal in three agreements: The EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the EU-U.K. Security of Information Agreement, the EU-U.K. Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.
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