A rock in the Mediterranean could make it freak out seventeen months of negotiations on the Brexit? A few hours of a summit expected to endorse the divorce agreement gave birth in the pain between the Twenty-Seven, and the United Kingdom, Sunday, in Brussels, the fate of Gibraltar continued to be a problem. While the issue appeared to be resolved in several drafts of the text, these last few weeks, the Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez threatened in recent days to put his “veto” and boycott the summit. “The guarantees are not yet sufficient, thus, Spain maintains its veto , he said Friday night during a press conference in Havana. If there is no agreement, the european Council will very probably not”.
blackmail theoretical – and referred to domestic politics – because such a veto does not exist formally, a majority “qualified” member States sufficient to approve the agreement. Madrid claims a right to look into the future of the british enclave after the Brexit. It remained “the only question still open” after a meeting of representatives of Twenty-Seven on Friday. But, in Brussels and in other capitals, we did not intend to let the subject ruin the outcome.
All the rest has been resolved. In particular, the question of fishing, which has been mobilized by France and half a dozen other member States, these last days. While London expects to recover its maritime sovereignty, these countries want to keep their right to fish in british waters. The litigation remains but has been released from the agreement itself and will be the subject of a separate declaration. The Commission wants to link the british dominion to the access to the european market for the fish in the upcoming trade negotiations. Theresa May, who boasts among its population to have obtained gain of cause, is not the end of his sentences.
Almost two and a half years after the referendum to leave the european Union, the British finally have a deal. This is the first concrete act of the Brexit.
the fact Remains that, for the first minister, a crucial step is to be taken. She needs to go to Brussels on Saturday to finalize with the chair of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, the choreography of the extraordinary council of heads of State and government on Sunday morning. The event is expected to be accelerated: an hour and a half of discussion of the Twenty-Seven without Theresa May, an hour with it, and press conferences. In the best case, everyone could be back home for lunch. Angela Merkel has made clear that it does not move that to endorse an agreement upstream on the diplomatic level and ministerial, not to negotiate it-even live.
Almost two and a half years after the referendum to leave the european Union, the British finally have a deal. This is the first concrete act of the Brexit. The text of 585 pages sets out in detail the terms of the divorce: payments, rights of expatriates respective guarantees to the border with the irish – the most sensitive point of the negotiations. It is accompanied by a “political declaration”, 26 pages, not legally binding, sketching the broad lines of the future relationship between London and the EU. It will not be negotiated from the uk release, on march 29, 2019. The discussions could take between two and four years. In the meantime, a transition will be put in place, in which the status quo will continue, except that the United Kingdom will no longer be represented in the european institutions and will no longer have a voice in its decisions, however, it will be supposed to comply with. Scheduled until the end of 2020, this transitional period may be extended two more years.
Trap european without end
The British in a hurry to finish with the poisoning Brexit will not be out of the woods anytime soon. Difficult choices will remain. The more they wish to preserve their commercial ties with the EU, the more they will have to sacrifice their desire for autonomy. The brexiters denounce a diabolical trap european without end. Back to countries, an agreement of Twenty-Seven in his pocket, Sunday, Theresa May will be a mountain even more significant to overcome: to obtain its ratification by a Parliament in Westminster charged, around the 11 December. His deal is unanimously against him, both among the supporters of Brexit than in proeuropéens of the various parties. Within the conservative group, his party, 88 mps, 315 are already saying they will refuse to vote for. A constitutional crisis looms.
In the meantime, Theresa May will tirelessly promote the agreement in dramatizing the issues. She hopes to force the support of elected officials by appealing directly to the good sense of the population and businesses. She has already gone two times to answer live questions from listeners on radio channels. “If the agreement doesn’t pass, we will find ourselves at the starting line”, she warned on Friday on BBC 5 Live.
