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One of the worst aspects of the Withdrawal Agreement is that there is no clause about whether or how Britons resident in the UE can provide services around the EU (physically in situ, or online). British in Europe campaigned hard on this point and, thankfully, an explicit exclusion of UKinEU service provision was removed from an earlier draft of the WA. However, the resulting situation is both ambiguous and complex. BiE has participated in a special working group to find out what we will and will not be able to do now that we are in the 'sunny Brexit uplands' (see statement below). We thank the team for all their work on this issue which is of cardinal importance to many of our members.
Statement Cross-Border Services Working Group 14/01/21:
The Cross-Border Services working group believes that in most cases, the remote rendering of services by British nationals resident in an EU member state to people and entities in other member states will still be possible now that the Brexit transition period has come to an end.
However, in some cases there will be restrictions due to issues such as professional qualification requirements.
The physical rendering of services by Brits in an EU member state will be possible in certain circumstances in accordance with the free trade agreement between the EU and UK along with existing provisions for third-country nationals such as fixed-term secondment through a company established in an EU member state.
Whether and how this is permitted will depend greatly on factors such as your sector, experience, form of establishment, and target country, so it is important to check out the conditions for your specific situation and to establish whether a visa will be required.
Note that in numerous service sectors such as media and arts & culture, service providers are effectively left with a "no deal" scenario which means that they are subject to baseline conditions for third-country nationals and the requirements of the national legislation of EU member states.
If in any doubt, service providers should take individual legal advice to ensure that their activity is permitted.
The European Commission’s EU-UK trade agreement explainer contains a section on services, including certain sector-specific information.
