EU leaders back Theresa May’s deal in Brussels

EU leaders have given their backing to the Brexit deal struck with Theresa May, firing the starting pistol on the prime minister’s race to win parliamentary approval in time for the UK’s withdrawal next March.

At an extraordinary summit in Brussels, the bloc’s 27 heads of state and government took a decisive and historic step towards sealing the terms of Britain’s split from Brussels after 45 years of membership.

Unanimous support was given to the terms of a voluminous draft withdrawal treaty, covering citizens’ rights, the £39bn divorce bill, and the Irish border issue, along with a 26-page political declaration setting out the basis of the future relationship.

In a statement, the EU’s leaders stated their intention to build “as close as possible a partnership” with the UK after Brexit, while warning that they would be “permanently seized” in future negotiations by the principle that countries outside the bloc cannot enjoy the same rights as those within.

Brussels has already rejected the proposals thrashed out this summer at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat, to achieve “frictionless trade” in goods after Brexit.

Further statements issued on Sunday morning by the 27 EU leaders laid out their intention to maintain the rights of European fleets to fish in British waters.

There was a thinly veiled threat to block any transition extension unless a new arrangement with Brussels was swiftly agreed by the government.

Arriving at the summit, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, nevertheless advised MPs to vote for the deal on the table, suggesting that a “no” vote could damage negotiations on the future relationship.

“Now it is time for everybody to take their responsibilities, everybody,” he said. The deal was “a necessary step to build the trust between the UK and the EU” to build “an unprecedented and ambitious future partnership”.

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said: “I would vote in favour of this deal because this is the best deal possible for Britain.

“I’m sad because watching the UK … leaving the EU is not a moment for jubilation but a moment of deep sadness and we make everything possible in order to have this divorce being as smooth as possible, but there are no smooth divorces.

“This is the deal, it’s the best deal possible and the EU will not change its fundamental position when it comes to this issue so I do think the British parliament – because this is a wise parliament – will ratify this deal.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macron described it as “not a day to celebrate”, while the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, warned MPs no better deal was on offer from the EU, urging them to back the agreements the May was bringing back to parliament.

“If I would live in the UK I would say yes to this, I would say that this is very much acceptable to the United Kingdom,” Rutte said, because the deal “limited the impacts of Brexit while balancing the vote to leave”. In a bid to help the prime minister, he said May had “fought very hard” and now there was “an acceptable deal on the table”.

“You know I hate [Brexit] but it is a given,” he told reporters. “No one is a victor here today, nobody is winning, we are all losing.”

May will hope that the leaders’ endorsement of the terms of the UK’s divorce will mark the end of nearly 18 months of arduous negotiations, during which the prime minister has survived cabinet resignations and an attempted coup by Brexiters on her own backbenches.

Should the withdrawal agreement be ratified in Westminster and the European parliament, it is further agreed that the UK will stay in the single market and customs union, without representation in any decision-making institutions, for a 21-month-long transition period following withdrawal on the 29 March 2019.

An extension of that period of “up to one or two years” is foreseen should the negotiations over the future relationship not be completed by the end of 2020.

May must now return to the cut and thrust of parliamentary politics in Westminster, as she battles to convince MPs, including many in her own party, to back her painstakingly negotiated deal in the “meaningful vote”.

In her open letter to the British public published yesterday, May promised to campaign “with my heart and soul to win that vote and to deliver this Brexit deal”.

She said the vote would take place in “a few weeks”. Opposition whips expect the government to announce the date this week – with the betting at Westminster on 10 or 11 December, just before the next scheduled meeting of EU leaders in Brussels. There are likely to be upwards of 30 hours of debate in the deeply divided House of Commons, over the course of several days.

With more than 80 of the prime minister’s own party having publicly expressed scepticism about the deal, and Labour pledged to oppose it – barring a likely handful of rebels – May faces a formidable challenge in winning the vote. Yet losing it would plunge Britain into what May herself has called, “deep and grave uncertainty”.

The EU is keenly aware that the British parliament could reject the deal, but want to show the bloc was able to make an offer to the UK.

The agreement had appeared at risk in the days leading up to the summit, when Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, threatened to withhold support unless Britain conceded that the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, over which the Spanish have a long-running territorial claim, would be covered by a future trade deal only with Madrid’s consent.

The British ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, gave that commitment in a letter on Saturday afternoon, prompting outrage across the political spectrum by what was described as a “betrayal” of the Rock.

Asked how Spain’s threatened “veto” was solved, Lithuania’s president, Dalia Grybauskaitė, said as she arrived at the summit: “Usually there are some tricks, we promise to promise.”

EU leaders see the summit as a sombre moment. “There is nothing good for any side because it is withdrawal from the European Union,” Grybauskaitė added.

The European parliament also has to give its consent to the deal, which is expected in January, according to its president, Antonio Tajani. “We will vote for the agreement, there is a majority in favour,” he said. “This is a message to our friends in the British parliament: this is a good agreement for both.”