2020 in Europe: Brexit, climate targets, Balkans enlargement

A year after Britain's new trade pact with the EU was sealed, UK exports to the bloc have plunged. With unfinished business around fisheries, Northern Ireland and financial services, what's next for Brexit?

Is the United Kingdom better off without Europe? Did the country make a risky choice by leaving the EU one year ago? Our reporters Jonathan Walsh and Clovis Casali crossed the Channel to understand the consequences of Brexit on the daily lives of citizens. From London to Belfast, via Boston – the town with the highest pro-Brexit vote in 2016 – they report on how the UK has changed.

It's a year since Britain's PM, Boris Johnson, confidently led his nation over the precipice for what was popularly dubbed a hard Brexit.

Enter the twilight of the world's longest reign. The 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II missed what is arguably the highlight of any British monarch's calendar: the reading of the government's parliamentary program instead delivered by her son, the crown prince. The importance is mostly symbolic, since the Queen's Speech is written by the prime minister. However the optics of the exercise beget the question: what United Kingdom will Charles inherit?

Britain said it would "not shy away from taking action" over post-Brexit trade tensions in Northern Ireland as it rejected EU proposals to resolve the standoff.

Boris Johnson has again threatened to break post-Brexit agreements with the EU as victorious Sinn Fein accuses him of pandering to the DUP, which is blocking the formation of a government after recent elections.

Brussels has said a British proposal to effectively override parts of a Brexit deal with a new law is "not acceptable." The UK has proposed a new law to drop part of the Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland trade.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has written an opinion piece with her Irish counterpart in a British paper, saying the UK was "not engaging in good faith" with its plans to change the Northern Ireland protocol.

In a tumultuous week for British politics, European Union lawmakers continue to call on Westminster to resume post-Brexit talks. German-British MEP David McAllister is chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and closely involved in Brexit-related issues on the EU side.

Boris Johnson is soon to leave Downing Street for the last time. According to a recent Ipsos survey, the British public rank him as the country's worst performing postwar leader. Johnson will be forever remembered as one of the men behind Brexit and as a PM who attended illegal parties at Downing Street during lockdown. But some Conservatives are already nostalgic for the leader they affectionately call "Boris". FRANCE 24's Julien Sauvaget and Clovis Casali report from across the UK on Johnson's divisive legacy.

Record numbers of people are moving to the UK even as the pro-Brexit government promises to crack down on immigration. Roughly 50,000 EU citizens left the UK over a one-year period, while 331,000 non-EU citizens arrived.

A prominent environmental group accused Berlin of failing to meet its own climate goals. It is asking for an emergency program to salvage the targets.