ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Today the United Kingdom and the European Union completed something years in the making - a deal on the terms of Britain's exit from the EU. The free trade agreement sort of concludes the process that started in 2016, when Britain voted to leave the EU. Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the deal in a statement this morning.
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PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON: I think this deal means a new stability and a new certainty in what has sometimes been a fractious and difficult relationship.
SHAPIRO: Well, NPR listeners first heard about the real possibility of the U.K. severing ties with the European Union on January 23, 2013. It was in an introduction to a story read by host Melissa Block.
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MELISSA BLOCK: The British people should have their say on their country's continued membership in the European Union - that declaration today from British Prime Minister David Cameron.
SHAPIRO: But searching our own archives, we did not hear the now-famous term to describe this action until May 8, 2015. Again, here's Melissa.
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BLOCK: And this is raising real questions about the future of the U.K. In Europe, it's known as the Brexit. Will Britain stay in the European Union? David Cameron's going to allow a referendum on that.
SHAPIRO: Bregsit (ph), Brexit - well, since then, it has been 5 1/2 years of explaining Brexit to you. For a couple of years, I did the explaining from London as NPR's international correspondent there. And I never imagined that at the end of the year 2020, we would still be talking about it. Well, today's deal concludes one part of the story, but there are still many repercussions to follow, which means you have not heard the last of the word Brexit. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.