Final call for Highland firms to be Brexit-ready amid concerns 'sizeable proportion' are not By Calum MacLeod | Updated: 05:15, 22 December 2020 Get the Ross-shire Journal sent to your inbox every week and swipe through an exact replica of the day's newspaper The UK's EU transition period comes to an end on January 1 2021. Businesses in the Highlands and Islands are being urged to prepare for the UK's exit from the EU if they have not already done so. The call comes from regional development agency, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), after its latest business panel survey of more than a thousand firms across the region found that many businesses are not fully ready for our new trading relationship with partners in the European Union.