The European Parliament has approved the trade deal between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, putting an end to the painful chapter of Brexit, according to the result of a vote officially announced on Wednesday April 28.
At the end of the ballot, organized Tuesday evening, 660 deputies approved the text, 5 opposed it and 32 abstained, out of 697 voters.
This agreement concluded at the end of December, and which already applied provisionally since the beginning of the year, “Brings stability to our new relationship with the EU as vital trading partners, close allies and sovereign equals”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement welcoming “The last stage of a long journey”.
“The foundation of a strong and close partnership”
This treaty “Marks the foundation of a strong and close partnership with the United Kingdom”, reacted the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Twitter.
I warmly welcome the @Europarl_EN vote in favor of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The TCA marks the f… https://t.co/oXc0Uef9DC
“Faithful implementation is essential”, she insisted however, the United Kingdom having in the past taken several decisions calling into question the previous treaty concluded with the EU, that of 2019 on Brexit, which organizes the divorce.
The Europeans notably accuse London of having violated the Irish protocol contained in this first treaty, by postponing certain customs controls supposed to be carried out between the British province of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, in order to avoid the return of a border on the island of Ireland.
An approval that has become urgent
The green light from MEPs on the trade agreement concluded in extremis on December 24 had become urgent: the provisional application of the text, effective since the beginning of the year, ends on Friday. The UK had ruled out any extension.
The ballot, after a five-hour parliamentary debate, is accompanied by the vote of a non-binding resolution, in which elected officials describe Brexit as“Historical error”.
They also ask to be fully involved in future discussions with London on the governance of this 1,250-page agreement, which Ursula von der Leyen promised on Tuesday.
Relations between London and Brussels have been deeply affected by the British decision to leave the single market, official since January 31, 2020, but effective only since the start of the year.
On the trade front, European exports to the UK fell 20.2%, while UK imports into the EU fell 47% in the first two months of 2021, according to Eurostat.
Added to this are other points of friction, such as the recent dispute over the supply of vaccines from AstraZeneca, or the threat Tuesday from France to take “Retaliatory measures” against British financial services if the post-Brexit fisheries agreement is not implemented.
