EU states expected to back Brexit deal
THE 27 European Union states are expected to formally back the postBrexit trade deal within days.
Ambassadors from the member states were being briefed on the deal yesterday by Michel Barnier, who led Brussels’ negotiating team in the talks with the UK.
They have written to the European Parliament to say they intend to take a decision on the preliminary application of the deal within days. The timing of the deal forced politicians and officials in the UK and Brussels to tear up their Christmas plans.
MPs and peers will be called back to Westminster on December 30 to vote on the deal, but MEPs are not expected to approve it until the new year, meaning it will have to apply provisionally until they give it the green light. The draft treaty and associated Brexit agreements stretch to 1,246 pages of text.
Officials in Brussels and the capitals of EU states are scrutinising the texts. The EU’s Brexit experts on the UK working group will meet daily in Brussels to clarify the deal, with another meeting of ambassadors expected before the new year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the deal struck with the EU as a “new beginning” for Britain that resolves the European question that has “bedevilled” British politics for generations. But fishing leaders claimed he had sacrificed the industry, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer branded the accord “thin” – although his party will back it in next week’s Commons vote as the alternative was a “devastating” no-deal scenario.
The deal was not concluded until Christmas Eve. Sebastian Fischer, a spokesman for the German presidency of the Council of the EU, joked that he was looking forward to the diplomats’ meeting “because nothing is more fun than to celebrate Christmas among socially distanced colleagues”.
French Europe minister Clement Beaune said it was a “good agreement” and stressed the EU had not accepted a deal “at all costs”.
He said 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”.
Mr Johnson said the deal “will be the basis of a happy and successful and stable partnership with our friends in the EU for years to come”. He said it covered trade worth about £660 billion. It means:
- Goods and components can be sold without tariffs and quotas in the EU market.
- The share of fish in British waters that the UK can catch rises from around half now to two-thirds by the end of the five-and-a-halfyear transition.
- Allegations of unfair competition will be judged by an independent third-party arbitration panel with the possibility of a “proportionate” response.