Brexit, a Christmas gift for everyone – Corriere.it

The moment too difficult and the world too complicated to hate each other among friends. The agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom is a Christmas present for everyone. We shouldn’t have gotten into the last week, we shouldn’t have argued in times of a pandemic and – we mean? – we should not have separated: we are all European, on the mainland and on the island. But the Brexit vote (2016) and the electoral plebiscite for Boris Johnson (2019) left no alternatives.
Was inevitable that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union and it was desirable that an agreement be reached to regulate future relations.

Relief and sadness, ha commented the head of the EU negotiator, Michel Barnier. Sounds like a good summary. In London and Brussels, rest assured, they will suggest they have won. The truth is that we were all losing and we drew in extremis. Trade, transport, security: we share many things now. The spread of the English variant of the COVID-19, the truck file has Dover, the chaos of repatriations: in a few hours the truth has sounded the trumpet in the ears of the negotiators, who have understood.

A Brexit without agreement It would have been heavy for European countries and disastrous for the UK: the economy, weakened by the pandemic, was at great risk. Details are not yet known. But it seems that the agreement – which will have to go through the European Parliament – will simplify The trade, which ensures security cooperation, will leave Northern Ireland in the European market, avoiding a physical border with the Republic of Ireland. The agreement does not appear to cover the issue of services, the largest British export. The Erasmus program will be replaced, for English learners, by a exchanges all over the world. Soon everything will be clearer. For now, let’s remember the most important thing: a agreement better than nothing agreement. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, borrowed a metaphor from the Beatles to define the long negotiation: a long and winding road, a long and winding road. An agreement was fair and responsible, he added. Boris Johnson, in an impromptu press conference, recalled: We have left the EU, but this country will remain cultural, emotional, historical, strategic and geological. attached to Europe. If so, dear BoJo, wouldn’t it have been better to avoid Brexit and stay with the family? —