The EU and the UK have—at last—successfully concluded negotiations. From the Brexit referendum that took place on the 23rd June 2016 to the announcement of the “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” on Christmas Eve, four years, six months and one day passed. It is very easy to look back upon these last four-and-a-half years, gasp at the events that took place and sigh about their consequences; to see this new agreement as the coup de grace of the relationship between the EU and the UK.