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Updated 2 hours ago
EU LEADERS HAVE signed their post-Brexit trade deal with Britain and sent it to London on an RAF plane, setting their stamp on a protracted divorce just hours before the UK ends its European experiment of half a century.
EU heads Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the heads of the European Commission and the European Council, smiled in a short televised ceremony to put their names on the 1,246-page Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
“It’s been a long road. It is time to leave Brexit behind. Our future is made in Europe, ”said von der Leyen.
The United Kingdom will leave the European single market and the customs union tomorrow at 11pm, the end of a difficult year and a post-Brexit transition period marked by intense and tortuous trade negotiations.
But first the heavy document, bound in blue leather, will be transported by the Royal Air Force to London for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to add his signature, as the British parliament launched a hasty debate to clear the covers before the deadline that it’s coming.
Introducing legislation to ratify the deal, Johnson told lawmakers that he was announcing “a new relationship between Britain and the EU as equal sovereigns, united by friendship, trade, history, interests and values.”
“With this bill we are going to be a friendly neighbor, the best friend and ally that the EU could have,” he said.
London and Brussels would work “hand in hand as long as our values and interests coincide, while fulfilling the sovereign desire of the British people to live under their own sovereign laws made by their own sovereign parliament,” he added.
In Brussels, Michel said: “On important issues, the European Union is ready to work hand in hand with the UK.
“This will be the case for climate change, ahead of COP 26 in Glasgow, and for the global response to pandemics, in particular with a possible pandemic treaty.”
The Johnson government published the attached British legislation yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the debate begins in parliament and an hour after it was signed in Brussels.
The government intends to push all stages of the 85-page European Union (future relationship) bill through the Commons and House of Lords in one day.
The deal avoided the prospect of a cliff-edge separation that would have seen quotas and tariffs slapped across the Channel on all trade, exacerbating tensions amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit Britain more than the United States. most.
The consequences take shape
British fishermen have accused the government of selling them.
Services, which account for 80% of the UK economy, were largely bypassed, and the City of London faces eager wait to find out on what basis it can continue to deal with Europe in the future.
But a faction of Brexiters in Johnson’s ruling conservatives gave their blessing to the EU deal on Tuesday, and the main opposition Labor party voiced its reluctant support, ensuring the legislation passes.
Despite misgivings among some of his own MPs, who plan to abstain in Wednesday’s vote, Labor leader Keir Starmer said neutrality was not an option given the stakes for Britain, as nearly five are undone. decades of integration with the European continent.
“This is a small deal, it has many flaws, but a small deal is better than no deal,” Starmer told deputies.
Indeed, the full fallout of the deal will only materialize in the coming months, and UK businesses will continue to grapple with the kind of red tape customs they have avoided for decades in trading through the Canal.
As of January 1, there will no longer be free movement of people from Great Britain to the EU or vice versa.
The UK government is pulling out of a European student exchange program that has benefited tens of thousands of young people over the years.
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Under the agreement, musicians are not covered by exemptions that allow free passage of short-term business visitors to the EU, raising warnings that continental tours of UK bands will be unfeasible.
The many British holiday home owners in Europe are finding that unless they apply for residence permits they will face limits on how often they can visit their properties.
Under the compressed legislative calendar, the European Parliament will only debate the Brexit deal after the New Year, but they are expected to finally pass it.
Pending that, EU member states gave the green light on Monday for the deal to enter provisionally into force before tomorrow’s deadline.
© – AFP, 2020
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