Britain’s House of Commons has given final approval to the bill authorizing the country’s departure from the European Union, paving the way for Brexit at the end of the month.
In this handout photo provided by the House of Commons, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures during the first Prime Minister's Questions of the year, in the House of Commons in London, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020. The president of the European Commission warned Britain on Wednesday that it won’t get the “highest quality access” to the European Union's market after Brexit unless it makes major concessions.
The bill was approved after three days of debate that brought none of the frayed tempers, late-night sessions and knife-edge votes that marked previous rounds of Brexit wrangling over the past year. “I have no doubt that their lordships will have heard the resounding message from the British people on the 12th of December,” he said.
“Leaving the EU doesn’t mean that we will have got Brexit done,” said Paul Blomfield, a Brexit spokesman for the main opposition Labour Party. “We’ll have completed the first step, departure, but the difficult stage is yet to come.”Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said Thursday that Britain’s goal of striking a full free trade agreement by the end-of-year deadline that Johnson insists on was unrealistic.
Britain and the EU will have to strike deals on everything from trade in goods and services to fishing, aviation, medicines and security. The EU insists there is no way to deal with all these issues in less than a year. British officials have suggested they could carve the negotiations up into chunks, sealing deals one sector at a time.Johnson says the U.K. is seeking a wide-ranging free trade deal with the bloc, but doesn’t want to agree to keep all EU rules and standards.
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