LONDON (AP) – The British House of Commons voted wholeheartedly on Wednesday to approve a trade deal with the European Union, paving the way for an orderly break with the bloc that will finally complete the UK’s years of Brexit journey.
With just one day left, lawmakers voted 521-73 in favor of the agreement struck 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 receives formal royal approval from Queen Elizabeth II.
The UK left the EU nearly a year ago, but remained within the bloc’s economic embrace during a transition period ending Thursday at midnight Brussels time – 11pm London.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel signed the agreement on Wednesday morning during a short ceremony in Brussels. The documents were then flown to London by Royal Air Force plane for Johnson to sign.
“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 European Parliament must also sign the agreement, but it is expected that this will only take a few weeks.
Just after top EU officials formally signed the hard-won agreement in Brussels, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged lawmakers in the House of Commons to back an agreement that he believes is “a new relationship between Britain and announced the EU as sovereign equals “.
It has been 4 1/2 years since Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the bloc it had joined in 1973. Brexit began on January 31 this year, but the real consequences of that decision have yet to be felt as the UK’s economic relationship with the EU remained unchanged during the 11-month transition period ending December 31.
That will change on New Year’s Day. The deal, which came about after more than nine months of exciting negotiations and was sealed on Christmas Eve, will ensure that Britain and the EU with 27 countries can continue to trade goods without tariffs or quotas. That should help protect the 660 billion pounds (894 billion dollars) of annual trade between the two sides and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it.
But the end of Britain’s membership of the EU’s massive single market and customs union will still bring inconvenience and new costs for individuals and businesses alike – from the need for tourists to purchase travel insurance to the millions of new customs declarations that companies will have to fill out.
Brexit advocates, including Johnson, say any pain is worth it in the short term.
Johnson said the Brexit deal would turn Britain from “a half-hearted, sometimes obstructive member of the EU” to “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 retaining sovereign control over our laws and our national destiny”.
Some lawmakers grumbled that they had been given only five hours in parliament to investigate a 1,200-page deal that would mean profound changes for the UK economy and society. But it is very likely that it will receive support from the House of Commons, where Johnson’s Conservative party has a large majority.
The mighty Eurosceptic wing of the party, which fought for years for the apparently long goal of getting Britain out of the EU, backed the deal.
The strongly pro-EU Scottish National Party and 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 in favor of the deal because even a small deal was better than a chaotic break without a deal.
“We have just one day before the end of the transition period, and it’s the only deal we have,” said Labor leader Keir Starmer. “It is a basis to build on in the coming years.”
Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who stepped down in 2019 after three years of Brexit bitterness in parliament, said she would vote in favor of Johnson’s deal. But she said it was worse than the one she negotiated with the bloc, which lawmakers repeatedly rejected.
She noted that the deal protected trade in goods, but did not cover services, which make up 80% of the UK economy.
“We have a deal in the trade that benefits the EU, but not a deal in services that would have benefited the UK,” said May.
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Petrequin reported from Brussels.
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