Welcome to the Fact Sheets website. Created in 1979 for Parliament’s first direct elections, the Fact Sheets are designed to provide non-specialists with a straightforward, concise and accurate overview of the European Union’s institutions and policies, and the role that the European Parliament plays in their development.
No, Brexit didn’t change the UK’s ability to authorise the Covid-19 vaccines earlier than the rest of the EU.
What was claimed: The UK has secured new free trade deals with over 70 countries since 2016, worth over £800 billion in new global trade. / Most of these deals were rolled over from existing EU agreements following Brexit. The figure refers to the total value of trade between the UK and countries it has agreed trade deals with—not the value that they add.
WTO members are responsible for 98% of world trade, but it’s misleading to say all of this trade is done “through” the WTO.
John Cole explores the government's response to a petition calling for an enquiry into the impact of Brexit before it's debated in parliament.
Using imperial measurements alone is illegal in many circumstances. But the EU did not outlaw their use altogether, and the UK did take some steps towards adopting the metric system prior to joining the EU.
A European Court of Human Rights ruling stopped the flight. It is a totally separate institution from the EU.
Tory leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt has again repeated a false claim she made during the 2016 referendum campaign that the UK wouldn't have been able to block Turkey from joining the EU.
To celebrate, the government has published a dossier titled “Benefits of Brexit: how the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU”. / But four of these alleged benefits aren’t a result of the UK’s departure.
Sam Bright unravels nine key claims made in the 100-page paper. / The paper is introduced with more than a dozen bullet points – summarising the key ways in which the Government has taken advantage of Brexit. However, this was an attempt at distortion and hyperbole – masking the ways in which leaving the EU has failed on its own terms.
The Express has repeated a misleading claim about Britain’s trade deals, despite having already amended a previous article which made the same claim, after being approached by Full Fact.
This page displays a table with United Kingdom Exports By Country in U.S. dollars, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.
This £766 billion figure refers to the total value of trade between the UK and countries it has agreed trade deals with—not the value that they add. Most of these deals were rolled over from when the UK was an EU member.
The EU accounted for 53.5% of UK-built vehicle exports – making it our biggest trading partner.
An aerial image of a mass of people near Hyde Park Corner in London has been shared widely on social media, with people claiming it shows the anti-lockdown protest on 24 April 2021.
An aerial image of a large protest has been shared on Facebook and Instagram alongside a claim that it shows an anti-lockdown demonstration in the UK capital of London in March 2021. The claim is false; the photo in fact shows an anti-Brexit protest in March 2019.
The chancellor says freeports could help the economic recovery, but critics say they increase the risk of tax dodging and lower employment standards.
Following the vote to leave the EU in June 2016, economists set about forecasting what Brexit meant for the future of the British economy. But how accurate did those forecasts end up being?
In October 2016, David Davis, the then Brexit secretary, told the House of Commons that “there will be no downside to Brexit at all, and considerable upsides”. / On this page we list the ‘considerable upsides’ and also the downsides...