Progress towards a Brexit agreement

The British PM Theresa May has secured the backing of her cabinet for the Brexit agreement.

Roxana Vasile, 15.11.2018, 13:56

The president of the European Council Donald Tusk announced that on November 25, if everything goes well, Brussels will venue an extraordinary summit for the signing of a draft Brexit draft deal. The official Brexit document has been finalized and it includes 585 pages, more than 400 chapters and three protocols. The document covers all the aspects for an orderly withdrawal of Britain from the EU. After March 29, 2019, when the UK loses the status of EU member, a period of transition will start, to last until December 31, 2020.

During this period Britain will have to observe all the current rules stipulated by the EU laws, without, however, having the right to participate in the decision-making process, so it will lose its right to vote at EU level. The period of transition may be extended with the agreement of the two sides, but this could entail Britain having to continue contributing to the EU budget. As stipulated ever since last year under the Brexit agreement, EU citizens in Britain and British citizens in the EU member states, who will be in those states until December 31, 2020, will benefit from the right to further reside and work in Britain after that date. The agreement gives this right also to the families of the aforementioned persons, and, in several articles, it clarifies the conditions necessary for granting this status after the period of transition.

The agreement also provides for Britain continuing to contribute to the EU budget in 2019 and 2020 and includes the mechanism set up for avoiding a ‘hard border’ between Ireland and Northern Ireland. A so-called hard border between the two would breach some of the provisions of the peace agreement that put an end to the long conflict in Northern Ireland. But the lack of regulations whatsoever would be tantamount to Britain remaining, de facto, a part of the European common space. On Wednesday, in London, the British PM Theresa May secured the backing of her cabinet for Brexit, more than 2 years after the British people voted for Brexit in a referendum.

At the end of a very long meeting in Downing Street 10, which led to the cancellation of several meetings on the British PM’s agenda, including the one with the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis, Mrs. May stated that the support she received was a decisive step forward towards Brexit. As to the text of the Brexit agreement, the British official said it was the best possible that could have been negotiated in the national interest. The timetable ahead of Brexit should now be accelerated. The draft agreement could be signed by the EU leaders at the extraordinary summit due on November 25, following which the ratification process is due to start. A first vote in the House of Commons might possibly take place in London on December 7, at the same time with the start of the ratification process in the European Parliament.