(Brussels) “The United Kingdom will no longer be a member of the EU on March 29^th 2019, at midnight”, and from then on it “will be a third country”. A notice that the EU Commission posted today about the EU-UK negotiations sums up what has happened since March 29^th, when the United Kingdom served notice of its decision to leave the European Union, and what is going to happen next. The priorities for the first stage in the negotiations are listed in the political guidelines drawn up by the European Council, which on May 22^nd authorised the negotiations to start and appointed the EU Commission as negotiator for the European Union. On its side, the EU Executive appointed Michel Barnier as chief negotiator and drew up nine records on specific issues, including citizens’ rights, finances, defence and nuclear weapons, legal cooperation. June 19^th marked the start of the “first stage in the negotiations” between the EU and the United Kingdom, to decide on some workgroups. The second stage will begin next week. The EU Council and the EU Parliament, regularly ahead of the procedure, will vote on the agreement submitted by the EU Commission. So will the United Kingdom. The idea is to agree on the “right balance of rights and duties”, in the awareness that, for the EU, the freedoms of people, properties, services and capitals are indivisible. No countries can enter into separate agreements at this stage. If no agreement is reached, then the EU treaties “will no longer apply to the United Kingdom two years after notice tehreof”.