Top European Union officials on Wednesday formally signed the EU-UK agreement on post-Brexit trade relations, which will come into effect after the Brexit transition period ends on Dec. 31. The 1,240-page agreement, reached on Christmas Eve, was signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, president of the European Council, an EU body that comprises the heads of state of the EU member countries. The document will then be taken to London by a Royal Air Force plane to be signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, before being provisionally applied as of Jan. 1, 2021. “The agreement that we signed today is the result of months of intense negotiations in which the European Union has displayed an unprecedented level of unity,” said Michel. “It is a fair and balanced agreement that fully protects the fundamental interests of the European Union and creates stability and predictability for …