Following the final approval by the UK Parliament of the bill implementing the EU withdrawal agreement, and after the Queen of England gave her final consent, members of the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) in turn recommended to the European Parliament as a whole on Thursday 23 January that they validate the draft withdrawal agreement as negotiated by the Twenty-Seven and London last October. They had not tabled any amendments to that effect.
The European Parliament is due to vote on the agreement on 29 January, giving the final validation to the negotiations, begun in 2017.
By 23 votes to 3 with 0 abstentions, AFCO MEPs approved, to be precise, the draft recommendation of the Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium).
In this draft, the coordinator basically rounds up the history of the Brexit process in the European Parliament since the referendum of 2016, underlining for example that the Brexit steering committee has met at least "a hundred times" in 3 years; the European Parliament has itself adopted 5 resolutions on the subject and Mr Verhofstadt would like to think that the European Parliament and, alongside it, Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator, have largely contributed to "improving" the initial text, in particular on citizens' rights.
But the European Parliament coordinator also lists once again the concerns of his institution, in particular with regard to the rights of European citizens. MEPs are concerned about the application of these rights, including the lack of a physical document proving that an application for permanent resident status in the UK has been confirmed.
The British House of Lords, presented as being more opposed to Brexit, this week voted an amendment requiring the British Government to provide European nationals with physical documents attesting to their status. An amendment overturned on January 22 by members of the House of Commons. For Guy Verhofstadt, there should be at least one "printable PDF document" and not just an "e-mail".
A "dark" day
Prior to the vote, several tributes were paid to the British MEPs who were reaching the end of their time in the European Parliament. For Antonio Tajani (EPP, Italy), chair of the AFCO committee, this is an "historic moment", but also a "dark moment". "A Member State is leaving the EU". "This cannot therefore give rise to celebrations".
For Mr Verhofstadt too, this vote in committee is a "black day, a sad day". However, the coordinator could not recommend a negative vote, which would be synonymous with "no deal". (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)