LONDON (AP) – Parliament of Great Britain voted loudly on Wednesday to approve a trade agreement with the European Union, paving the way for an orderly break with the bloc that will finally complete the long and divisive Brexit journey in the UK.
With just a day off, legislators in the House of Commons voted 521-73 in favor of the sealed deal between the UK government and the EU last week.
Brexit enthusiasts in Parliament praised it as a claim to the bloc’s independence. Pro-Europeans lamented their failure to preserve continued trade with Britain’s biggest economic partner. But the vast majority of the divided commoners agreed that it was better than the alternative of a chaotic break with the EU.
On Wednesday night, the upper house of Parliament, the unelected House of Lords, also supported the deal. It will become British law in a few hours as soon as it receives the formal consent of Queen Elizabeth II.
The UK left the EU almost a year ago, but remained within the bloc’s economic embrace during a transition period that ends at midnight Brussels time – 11pm in London – on Thursday.
The day before departure, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel signed the hard-won agreement during a brief ceremony in Brussels.
“The agreement we signed today is the result of months of intense negotiations in which the European Union has shown an unprecedented level of unity,” said Michel. “It is a fair and balanced agreement that fully protects the fundamental interests of the European Union and creates stability and predictability for citizens and businesses.”
The documents were then transported by Royal Air Force plane to London, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson added his signature on a photo opportunity in front of a row of Union Jack flags.
The European Parliament must also sign the agreement, but it is not expected to reach several weeks.
Johnson told lawmakers that the agreement announced “a new relationship between Britain and the EU as equal sovereigns”.
Four and a half years have passed since Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the bloc it joined in 1973. Brexit started on January 31 this year, but the real repercussions of that decision have not yet been felt , since the UK’s economic relationship with the EU has remained unchanged during the 11-month transition period ending on 31 December.
Big changes are coming on New Year’s Day. The deal, signed after more than nine months of tense negotiations and sealed on Christmas Eve, will ensure that Britain and the 27 EU countries can continue to market products without tariffs or quotas. This should help protect the 660 billion pounds ($ 894 billion) in annual trade between the two sides and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it.
But the end of Britain’s accession to the EU’s vast single market and customs union will still bring inconvenience and new expenses for individuals and businesses – from the need for tourists to have travel insurance to the millions of new customs declarations that companies will have. to fill out.
Brexit supporters, including Johnson, say any short-term pain will be worth it.
Johnson said the Brexit deal would transform Britain from “an indifferent and sometimes obstructive EU member” to “a friendly neighbor – the best friend and ally the EU could have”.
He said Britain would now “negotiate and cooperate with our European neighbors on the closest terms of friendship and goodwill, while retaining sovereign control over our laws and our national destiny”.
Some lawmakers have complained about having only five hours in Parliament to examine a 1,200-page deal that will mean profound changes for the British economy and society. But support among lawmakers – most of whom debated and voted at home because of virus restrictions – was overwhelming, though not always enthusiastic.
The powerful Eurosceptic wing of the Johnson Conservative Party, which fought for years for the seemingly distant goal of pulling Britain out of the EU, supported the deal.
The strongly pro-EU Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats and the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party voted against it. But the main opposition party, the Labor Party, which sought a closer relationship with the bloc, said it would vote in favor of the deal because even a tenuous deal is better than a chaotic break without a deal.
“We only have one day before the end of the transition period and it is the only agreement we have,” said labor leader Keir Starmer. “It is a base to build in the coming years.”
Former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who resigned in 2019 after three years of standing with Brexit in Parliament, said she would vote in favor of Johnson’s deal. But she said it was worse than what she negotiated with the bloc, which lawmakers have repeatedly rejected.
She noted that the agreement protected trade in goods, but did not cover services, which account for 80% of the British economy.
“We have a trade agreement that benefits the EU, but not a services agreement that would have benefited the United Kingdom,” said May.
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Petrequin reported from Brussels.
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