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Brexit: What's happening now?

On 23 June 2016, the UK made a historic decision. It voted to leave the European Union (EU).

More than 33 million adults voted. Around 52% of them chose to leave the group of 28 countries, while 48% wanted to stay in it.

The UK has been a member of the EU for more than 40 years, so this was an extremely important moment.

Even though the vote happened more than 6 months ago, the UK is currently still a member of the EU.

Leaving the EU is a very significant change, which is why it hasn't happened overnight.

An official process for the UK to leave the EU has not started. Currently, the government is discussing how it might work.

So what has happened in the months since the vote?

What happened after the referendum?

Once the result of the vote was announced, the prime minister at the time David Cameron - who wanted the UK to stay in the EU - said he was going to resign.

So the UK needed a new prime minister before anything else could happen.

Theresa May took over the job the following month in July 2016.

Since then, the UK government has been talking about what sort of relationship it would like with the EU when it leaves.

This is the first time that a member of the EU has left since it was formed, so leaders say they are taking their time to make sure that the process runs smoothly.

What happens now?

The UK has not officially announced to the rest of the EU that it is leaving yet.

Prime Minister Theresa May wants to do this - and start the process to leave - by doing what is called triggering Article 50.

This is a way for the UK government to officially tell the EU that it no longer wants to be a member.

Article 50 is part of an agreement between members of the EU, called the Lisbon Treaty, which explains how a country should go about leaving the group.

If the prime minister triggers Article 50, this will start a two-year process, during which UK and EU leaders will discuss what their relationship would be like in future.

However, a big court case is taking place at the moment to decide if Theresa May is allowed to trigger Article 50, without parliament also agreeing to it.

What would happen if Article 50 is triggered?

If Article 50 is triggered, the UK will be left out from making big EU decisions.

However, it would still have to follow EU rules and agreements until it is officially no longer a member.

A two-year period of time would start during which the UK and the EU would need to come to an agreement about their future relationship.

There are many things that need to be discussed and agreed upon before the UK could officially leave the EU, including the following:

• Business

The UK is currently part of something called the "single market" - an agreement designed to make it easier for countries in the EU to buy and sell ("trade") things with each other.

Leaders will need to decide how the UK will trade with members of the EU, once it is no longer a member of the group.

The US, for example, currently sells products into this single market, but it has slightly different rules - for example, it may have to pay extra charges.

So the EU needs to agree how the UK will buy and sell things with them too.

• People

Around three million people from other EU countries currently live, work or study in the UK, and around two million British people live in other EU countries.

Leaders will need to decide whether these people will be able to stay where they are just as before, or if that will need to change.

Theresa May has said that she wants people from elsewhere in the EU who are living in the UK to be able to stay, and the same for people from the UK living in the EU.

The prime minister has also said the UK would like more control over immigrationif it leaves the EU.

Immigration is when people go to live or work in another country, so Theresa May wants to have more control over who can come to live and work here.

However, the EU says that if the UK wants to benefit from the single market, it might not be able to have as much control over its borders as it would like.

• Laws

Countries in the EU share some laws between them.

At the moment, British laws and European laws are closely connected.

If the UK leaves, it will need to decide which bits of EU laws it wants to keep for its own laws, and which bits it doesn't.

Given how connected EU and British laws are, it could take a while to separate them.

The UK might have to keep some rules if it wants to have certain relationships with the EU after leaving.

These are just some of the areas that the UK and EU will need to discuss and agree on.

The process for the UK to leave the EU could take even longer than two years, if all of the other countries in the EU agree it can be extended.

How long the process takes depends on whether or not the UK and the EU are able to agree on how their relationship will work.

If Article 50 is triggered, the UK will not be able to come back into the EU unless all the other 27 countries in the group agree that it can.

Structure of lead
 WHO-Britain
 WHEN-not given
 WHAT-the effect of Brexit
 WHY-not given
 WHERE-not given

Keywords
 trigger-引起