LONDON (AP) – The UK House of Commons voted resoundingly on Wednesday to approve a trade deal with the European Union, paving the way for an orderly break with the bloc that will eventually end Britain’s Brexit journey for years.
With just one day left, lawmakers voted 521-73 in favor of the agreement reached between the British government and the EU last week.
It will become British law once it passes through the Unelected House of Lords later that day and will receive formal royal approval from Queen Elizabeth II.
Britain left the EU almost a year ago, but remained in the bloc’s economic embrace in a transition period ending at midnight, Brussels -23 to 23 in London – on Thursday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel signed the agreement during a short ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday morning. The documents were then transported by Royal Air Force to London for Johnson to add his signature.
“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,” Michel said. “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 companies.”
The European Parliament must also sign the agreement, but is not expected to do so for a few weeks.
Immediately after senior EU officials formally signed the hard-won deal in Brussels, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on lawmakers in the House of Commons to back an agreement he said announced “a new relationship between Britain and the EU as equal sovereigns” “.
It has been 4 and a half years since the United Kingdom voted 52% -48% to leave the bloc it joined in 1973. Brexit began on 31 January this year, but the real repercussions of this decision have not yet been reached. The United Kingdom’s economic relationship with the EU remained unchanged during the 11-month transition period ending on 31 December.
That will change on New Year’s Day. The agreement, concluded after more than nine months of tense negotiations and sealed on Christmas Eve, will ensure the UK and EU of the 27 nations can continue to trade in goods without tariffs or quotas. This should help protect the £ 660 billion ($ 894 billion) in annual trade between the two sides and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on it.
But the end of Britain’s accession to the vast EU single market and customs union will continue to bring inconvenience and new costs for both individuals and businesses – from the need for tourists to have travel insurance to millions of new customs declarations. which 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 turn Britain from a “half-hearted, sometimes obstructive member of the EU” into “a friendly neighbor – the best friend and ally the EU could have”.
He said Britain would “trade and cooperate with our European neighbors in the closest conditions of friendship and goodwill, while maintaining sovereign control of our laws and our national destiny”.
Some MPs muttered that they had only been given five hours in Parliament to consider a 1,200-page agreement that would mean profound changes for the British economy and society. But he is likely to rely on the House of Commons, where Johnson’s Conservative Party has a large majority.
The party’s strong Euro-keptic wing, which has fought for years for the seemingly long-term goal of removing Britain from the EU, backed the deal.
The strong pro-EU Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats voted against the bill. But the main opposition Labor Party, which was looking for a closer relationship with the bloc, said it would vote for the agreement because even a thin agreement was better than a chaotic rupture without an agreement.
“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’s a foundation to build on in the years to come.”
Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who resigned in 2019 after three years of Brexit acrimony in parliament, said she would vote for Johnson’s agreement. However, she said it was worse than the one she had negotiated with the bloc, which parliamentarians had repeatedly rejected.
She noted that the agreement protected trade in goods, but did not cover services, which account for 80% of the UK economy.
“We have a trade agreement that benefits the EU, but not a service agreement that would have benefited the UK,” May said.
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Petrequin reported from Brussels.
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