EU leaders and May seal ‘best possible’ Brexit package
BRUSSELS WARNS BRITISH PARLIAMENT NOT TO WRECK DEAL ENDORSED AT SUMMIT
Those who think that, by rejecting the deal, they would get a better deal, will be disappointed. The harder work of forging new relations now lies ahead”
European Union leaders warned the British parliament not to wreck Theresa May’s Brexit deal, saying a package sealed with the prime minister yesterday was the best Britain will get.
“Those who think that, by rejecting the deal, they would get a better deal, will be disappointed,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after the 27 other EU leaders formally endorsed a treaty setting terms for British withdrawal in March and an outline of a future EU-UK trade pact.
Asked whether there was any chance Brussels would reopen the pact if an alliance of pro- and anti-Brexit forces votes it down in the British parliament, Juncker said “this is the best deal possible”, although summit chair Donald Tusk sounded more guarded, saying he did not want to consider hypotheticals.
May used a post-summit news conference to make a sales pitch for her plan, telling TV viewers at home that it was the “only possible deal”, offering control of UK borders and budgets while maintaining close alignment with EU regulations that was good for business and the security of Britain and Europe. “In any negotiation, you do not get everything you want. I think the British people understand that,” said May, who arrived after the endorsement to voice hopes for continued close ties.
Parliament’s vote could open the door to a “brighter future” or condemn the country to more division, she said. “I will make the case for this deal with all my heart,” she added, declining to answer whether she would resign if parliament rejects it.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the bloc’s veteran guiding force, echoed that unwillingness to speculate on what she called a “historic day” that was both “tragic and sad”.
“There is no Plan B,” said Dutch Prime Minister Mark
Rutte.
“If anyone thinks in the United Kingdom that by voting No something better would come out of it, they are wrong.” The only Plan B was preparing a possible no-deal scenario in which Britain crashes out on March 29 into legal limbo, roiling Europe’s economy, a senior EU official said.
In May’s exchanges at the summit, there was no discussion of what may happen if parliament rejects the deal in a vote likely to take place just before the next EU summit on December 13-14.
Amid praise for Michel Barnier’s team of negotiators for bringing home a deal after 18 months of gruelling talks, Juncker said it was “no time for champagne”, as one of Europe’s great powers quits after a 2016 referendum. The harder work of forging new relations now lies ahead, he added.
The EU leaders took barely half an hour to rubber-stamp the 585-page withdrawal treaty, aimed at an orderly exit in March to be followed by two to three years of a status-quo transition period. The outline of a future trading and security partnership was just 26 pages long. May’s critics say it leaves Britain tied to EU regulations that it will no longer have a say in setting.
Jean-Claude Juncker | European Commission President
Seeing a country like Great Britain, but I would say this of any others, leaving the [EU] is not a moment of jubilation or celebration. It is a sad moment, a tragedy.” Jean-Claude Juncker | European Commission President
If people think there is somehow another negotiation to be done, that is not the case.”
Theresa May | British Prime Minister
The divorce deal approved by Britain and the European Union yesterday sets the stage for the end of a nearly 46-year marriage of convenience, built on prudence rather than shared dreams.
“It’s been a utilitarian relationship since 1973 and the emphasis was always on the economic dimension, not on the political one,” said Pauline Schnapper, professor of contemporary British history at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
“The sentimental dimension is near non-existent.”
Britain was against joining the European project when it was conceived after the Second World War in a spirit of reconciliation.
“We didn’t feel vulnerable enough to join,” said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London.
Instead, Britain preferred to focus on its special relationship with the United States and the remains of its empire.
London nevertheless supported the push for closer integration on the European continent and wartime prime minister Winston Churchill memorably called for the creation of a “United States of Europe” in a 1946 Zurich speech.
But in the early 1960s, Britain’s fortunes changed for the worse. Its economic growth started lagging behind that of France and Germany, making the European single market on its doorstep seem an appealing option.
“The UK’s leaders came to realise that the UK could not be outside what, by the 1960s, was fast becoming western Europe’s leading organisation for economics, politics and non-traditional security matters,” said Tim Oliver, lecturer at London’s Loughborough University.
“The UK had to be inside it to shape it.”
But joining the European project was not an easy task.
France’s then-president Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain’s first application in 1961, seeing it as a “Trojan Horse” for the US and doubting Britain’s European spirit. Another French veto followed in 1967 and the UK was only finally welcomed into the then European Economic Community (EEC) on January 1, 1973.
Unfortunately for Britain, the first oil crisis struck the same year and the much-hoped-for economic boost failed to materialise.
Nevertheless, 67 per cent of the British people voted to remain in the EEC in a 1975 referendum. But the result did little to temper Euro-scepticism in Britain, with politicians of all stripes reluctant to defend the project and the first crisis was not long in coming.
London refused in 1979 to participate in the European monetary system, defending its national and fiscal sovereignty.
It then resisted initiatives to deepen political integration, reinforcing the criticism that Britain had “one foot in, one foot out” of the project. Britain notably refused in 1985 to participate in the Schengen agreement for free movement, and in 1993 to join the euro.
Its anti-federalist approach was spelt out by prime minister Margaret Thatcher during a 1988 speech at the College of Europe in Bruges. In it, she rejected the idea of a “European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels”.
The Conservative leader had four years earlier finally won a rebate on Britain’s contribution to the European budget, making the infamous demand: “I want my money back.”
With deeper European political union in the 1990s, Britain’s defiance towards Brussels accelerated, leading to the creation of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), which campaigned for the country’s exit from the EU.
The Eurozone crisis, largescale immigration from the EU and the refugee crisis of the past few years stoked the discontent, pushing prime minister David Cameron to call the June 2016 referendum.
This deal is a necessary step to build trust between the UK and the EU... We will remain allies, partners and friends.”
Michel Barnier | EU chief Brexit
negotiator