Members of the House of Commons approved, on the evening of Thursday 9 January, by 330 votes to 231, the draft agreement for the UK's withdrawal from the EU, taking another step towards Brexit at the end of the month. The MPs had resumed their debates on 7 January and made some amendments.
The text will now go to the House of Lords for a second reading and then return to the House of Lords committees before the House makes its final decision on the text on 21 January. Finally, the last step will be for the text to come back to the House of Commons. Without further amendment, royal 'consent' will be given and the proposed withdrawal agreement will become law, a British government spokesman in Brussels said.
No alignment
The day before, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had described his 8 January meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (see EUROPE 12399/5) as "positive", but maintained his refusal to extend the transition period beyond 31 December 2020.
The Prime Minister was very clear that "the UK will not extend the transition period after 31 December", according to a Downing Street press release. The leader was also very clear that "any future agreement" should not include alignment with EU rules or recourse to the Court of Justice of the EU.
However, he continued to advocate for a future relationship based on friendly cooperation and shared values and history. The prime minister wants a broad free trade agreement along the lines of the Canadian CETA, which covers goods and services and other areas of cooperation, he said, seeming to embody the idea of a partial rather than a full agreement on the future relationship.
For her part, Ursula von der Leyen, on Wednesday, recalled the limits that will be imposed on the United Kingdom in terms of both timetable and ambition if the country wishes to diverge too markedly from European standards.
Warnings from Michel Barnier
These warnings were renewed on 9 January by the EU's negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier. On a trip to Stockholm, he said it "will take more than 11 months to reach an agreement on the future relationship between the UK and the EU, although Johnson ruled out any extension of the talks beyond 31 December", Reuters reported.
"We are prepared to do our best and the maximum in 11 months to reach agreement with the United Kingdom on the main principles, but we will need more time to agree on every point of this political declaration", he added.
Michel Barnier, like Mrs von der Leyen, considered it necessary to set priorities for the coming months, starting with "building a new framework for cooperation, both bilaterally and within international institutions, to respond to global issues such as climate change", then a "very close relationship on security issues" and, finally, tackling the economic relationship. On the latter aspect, it will be necessary to advocate "equivalent social, environmental and fiscal standards".
Stricter EU rules on state aid
Michel Barnier also insisted that state aid rules in any future trade deal would be more stringent than with countries like Canada, simply because of the physical proximity of the departing EU nation.
"If the UK wants an open link with us for the products - zero tariffs, zero quotas - we need to be careful about zero dumping at the same time".
"I hope that this point is and will be correctly understood by everyone. We will ask necessarily for certain conditions on state aid policy in the United Kingdom", added Mr Barnier. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)