For EU, parting is such sweet sorrow

Deal wins ‘provisional’ backing as Brussels’ chief laments loss of UK and vows: OUR future is in Europe

EU ambassadors plan to implement Boris Johnson’s trade deal on a provisional basis from January 1 – before the European Parliament gives the final sign-off next year.

The bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier yesterday briefed ambassadors after Thursday’s announcement that an agreement had been struck.

Diplomats said they planned to apply the deal on a provisional basis, although they will meet again on Monday to make a final decision on whether to back it.

It means EU officials will now have to spend their Christmas holidays poring over the details of the text that stretches up to 2,000 pages including annexes and footnotes.

However, the timetable also means the European Parliament will have to wait until next year to give its approval, much to the annoyance of MEPs who complained of being cut out of the whole process. It all means the chaos of No Deal Brexit has now been avoided unless one government decides at the last minute to unexpectedly veto the agreement.

The deal is almost certain to be rubber stamped after the weekend, ending nine months of tortuous negotiations on Britain’s trading relationship with the bloc.

France had long threatened to wield its veto amid a row over postBrexit fishing rights, before backing down earlier this week.

At a sober press conference on Christmas Eve, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said it was now time for the EU to move on from the Brexit debates that have dominated the past four and a half years.

She added: ‘I know this is a difficult day for some. To our friends in the

UK, I want to say: parting is such sweet sorrow.

‘But to use a line from TS Eliot: what we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning.

‘So to all the Europeans, I say: It is time to leave Brexit behind, our future is made in Europe.’

One of French president Emmanuel Macron’s closest allies took to the airwaves yesterday hailing the ‘good agreement’ as a success for the EU.

French Europe minister Clement Beaune told broadcaster Europe 1 ‘we needed an agreement less than the British’ as ‘for them, it was a vital need’.

He added that British food and industrial products entering the European single market after January 1 will not pay customs duties ‘but will have to meet all our standards’. ‘In terms of regained sovereignty, I think we have done better, to be honest with you,’ he said.

Mr Beaune added that Britain needed a deal more than Brussels to keep zero-tariff, zero-quota access to the bloc’s single market.

And in a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Johnson, he said: ‘The appeal of total sovereignty – the idea that a country – even a large one of roughly 60million inhabitants – can live alone in the era of globalisation is madness and it’s a lie. Those who said that have already performed a U-turn. Otherwise, they would have left with a No Deal.’

The drawn- out negotiations concluded just one week before the end of the Brexit transition phase, meaning politicians and officials in the UK and Brussels were forced to tear up their Christmas plans.

‘An end to the talks has been the best present ever,’ said one EU diplomat, who missed his plane home and is now stuck in the Belgian capital for the holiday period.

‘Let us hope it is really the end though and there is no drama in the House of Commons. That would mean the Brits have ruined our Christmas for nothing.’

MPs and peers are to be hauled back to Westminster on Wednesday to vote on the deal.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said she was ‘confident’ that the agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom was a ‘good outcome’. ‘Even outside the European Union, Britain will remain an important partner for Germany and the European Union,’ she said.

The French president also welcomed the fact that a No Deal had been avoided. ‘The agreement with the United Kingdom is essential to protect our citizens, our fishermen, our producers,’ Mr Macron wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

An EU source close to the talks said last night: ‘You wouldn’t believe the amount of work going on today. Teams have been [working] through the night for days now, including Christmas Eve, and are hunkered down in dreary (and freezing!) meeting rooms in otherwise deserted buildings since early morning and probably until late tonight. Time is so tight there won’t be a moment’s break until New Year’s Eve.’

‘Working through the night’