LONDON (AP) – Britain’s House of Commons voted strongly on Wednesday to approve a trade deal with the European Union, paving the way for an orderly break with the bloc that will eventually complete the Brexit trip for years in the UK.
With only one day to lose, lawmakers voted 521-73 in favor of the agreement signed between the UK government and the EU last week.
It will become British law once it passes through the unelected House of Lords later in the day and obtains the formal royal consent of Queen Elizabeth II.
The United Kingdom left the EU almost a year ago, but remained within the bloc’s economic embrace during a transition period ending at midnight on Thursday in Brussels, at 11pm in London.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel signed the agreement during a brief ceremony in Brussels on Wednesday morning. The documents were transported by Royal Air Force plane 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 businesses.”
The European Parliament must also sign the agreement, but is not expected to do so for several weeks.
Right after EU senior officials formally signed the agreement reached in Brussels, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged lawmakers in the House of Commons to support an agreement that he said announced “a new relationship between Britain and the EU as equal sovereigns ”.
It has been 4 and a half years since Britain voted between 52% and 48% to leave the bloc it had joined in 1973. Brexit began on 31 January this year, but the real repercussions of this decision have not yet been heard, as the UK’s economic relationship with the EU remained unchanged during the 11-month transition period ending 31 December.
That will change on New Year’s Day. The agreement, marked after more than nine months of tense negotiations and sealed on Christmas Eve, will ensure that Britain and the EU of 27 countries can continue to negotiate 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 depend on it.
But the end of Britain’s accession to the EU’s large single market and customs union will still cause inconvenience and new costs for both individuals and businesses, from the need for tourists to travel insurance to millions. of new customs declarations that companies will have to fill out. out.
Brexit supporters, including Johnson, say any short-term penalty will be worth it.
Johnson said the Brexit deal would turn Britain into “a half-hearted, sometimes obstructive EU member” into “a friendly neighbor – the best friend and ally the EU could have”.
He said Britain would now “trade and cooperate with our European neighbors on the closest terms of friendship and goodwill, while maintaining sovereign control of our laws and our national destiny.”
Some lawmakers complained of receiving only five hours in Parliament to examine a 1,200-page agreement that would mean profound changes for the British economy and society. But he is very likely to gain the support of the House of Commons, where Johnson’s Conservative party has a large majority.
The party’s powerful Eurosceptic wing, which fought for years over Britain’s seemingly long-term goal of removing the EU, has backed the deal.
The Scottish National Party strongly in favor of the EU and the Liberal Democrats voted against the bill. But the main opposition Labor party, which had sought a closer relationship with the bloc, said it would vote for the deal because even a thin deal would be better than a chaotic rupture without a deal.
“We only have one day before the end of the transition period, and it’s the only agreement we have,” Labor leader Keir Starmer said. “It’s a base to take advantage of in the coming years.”
Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who resigned in 2019 after three years of Brexit acrimony in Parliament, said she would vote for Johnson’s deal. But he said it was worse than the one he had negotiated with the bloc, which lawmakers repeatedly rejected.
He 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, which benefits the EU, but not a service, which would have benefited the UK,” May said.
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Petrequin reported from Brussels.
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