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European Union ambassadors are meeting on Christmas Day to evaluate the free trade agreement that the bloc reached with the United Kingdom after nine months of negotiations.
Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier will update diplomats on the deal, reached after months of tense talks on fishing rights and trade rules.
Boris Johnson has hailed the deal as a “new beginning” for the UK. But a major fishing organization accused the prime minister of sacrificing the industry to reach a deal, as the deadline to abandon EU trade rules loomed.
The prime minister is still waiting to hear the verdict from Eurosceptic MPs within his own party, some of whom have privately expressed concern that the deal did not go far enough.
Labor leader Keir Starmer said it was a “weak deal” but that his party would back it as the only alternative to no deal, meaning it should get approval from the Commons.
After the deal was announced on Thursday, EU nations said they supported the result. They are expected to unanimously endorse the deal, a prerequisite for its legal approval.
The European Parliament needs to ratify the agreement, but it is unlikely to do so until the new year, which means that its implementation will be formally provisional until then.
MPs and colleagues will be called to Westminster on December 30 to vote on the deal.
Sebastian Fischer, spokesman for the German presidency of the Council of the EU, joked that he was looking forward to the meeting of diplomats “because nothing is more fun than celebrating Christmas with socially estranged colleagues.”
“Thank you Brexit,” he added.
French Europe Minister Clément Beaune said it was a “good deal” and stressed that the EU had not accepted a deal “at all costs”.
He told Europe 1 broadcaster that “we needed a deal less than the British” as “for them, it was a vital need.”
“There is no country in the world that is subject to as many export rules for us as the UK,” he said.
The government has published a summary of the document. The full document, which is about 1,500 pages long, is supposed to be published soon.
Johnson used his Christmas message to sell the deal to a Brexit-weary public after years of bitter bickering since the 2016 referendum.
Grabbing a sheaf of papers she said, “I have a small gift for anyone looking for something to read at that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment, and here it is, news, good news of great joy, because I agree.
“An agreement to give certainty to businesses, travelers and all investors in our country from January 1. An agreement with our friends and partners in the EU.”
The prime minister has affirmed that the agreement meets the objectives set during the 2016 campaign to “regain control”.
This includes an increase in the proportion of fish in British waters that the UK can catch, from about half now to two-thirds at the end of the five-and-a-half-year transition.
At a Downing Street news conference on Christmas Eve, Johnson said that “as a result of this agreement [we will] to be able to catch and eat quite prodigious amounts of extra fish ”, with £ 100 million for the UK fishing industry to modernize and expand.
Fisheries organizations do not agree with Johnson’s assessment. Barrie Deas, executive director of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations, said there would be “frustration and anger” throughout the industry. “In the end, it became clear that Boris Johnson wanted a blanket trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,” he told the PA news agency.
French politicians have expressed concern that the agreement postpones disputes over fishing rights, rather than resolving them.
Boulogne-sur-Mer mayor Frédéric Cuvillier said the agreement left many doubts.
“Relief for our fishermen, but what will be the impact on populations? Who, for example, will be in charge of the controls? And at what time? he told Europe 1 radio. “The only certainty today is that we need to find, during the transition period, more agreements within the agreement.”
