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Questions about how full details of the Brexit deal would be received and warnings about negotiations that will continue after its implementation have tempered widespread relief in Europe that a last resort deal had been reached.
Many commentators have also questioned how Britain would negotiate the reality of life outside the European Union after years of unresolved arguments, even within the pro-Brexit camp, over the country’s strategic direction. .
The world said the country now faces a dilemma from over half a century ago. “The United Kingdom is once again faced with a question which was never resolved after 1945: its place in the world,” writes Philippe Bernard. “It’s like Back to the future, from the 50s.
“While Germany and France are embarking on European construction, the British refuse to join this project, too limited for their ambitions and initiated by two countries which they consider, unlike them, to be losers in the war.
On Boxing Day, officials in Brussels and the capitals of EU member states began reviewing the more than 1,000 pages that made up the deal, as did people whose livelihoods may be at stake.
“The only certainty today is that we must find, during the transition period, more transactions within the framework of the agreement”, declared Frédéric Cuvillier, mayor of the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, in the north. from France, which has a large fishing industry.
The deal left a lot of obscurity, he warned. “A relief for our fishermen, but what will be the impact on the stocks? Who, for example, will take care of the controls? And at what time? »He declared to Europe 1 radio.
Despite challenges from him and others unhappy with the deal, it is widely expected that the deal will be ‘provisionally applied’ at the end of the year by the EU in order to avoid a no-deal outcome, MPs voting later in January. The House of Commons will be recalled and hold a vote on the new treaty on December 30.
But Britain and Europe should expect years of continuous trade disputes, Björn Finke warned in South German newspaper.
“Those who think the Brexit drama ends with this deal will be bitterly disappointed,” he wrote. “In the years and decades to come, there will be many reasons to appeal to the arbitration bodies envisaged in the agreement, probably under threat of tariffs. The drama will continue. Sadly.”
The triumphalism that marked Boris Johnson’s presentation of the deal at home was largely absent in Europe, perhaps because many believed Britain had not emerged with the clear victory its leader had claimed.
This is perhaps one of the few opinions they share with the hard Brexiters in Britain, who are now looking at the deal to decide if they will back it.
French Europe Minister Clément Beaune said it was a “good deal” and stressed that the EU had not accepted a deal “at all costs”. Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin welcomed him as representing the “least bad version of Brexit possible”.
Not bound by diplomatic niceties, France Release The newspaper was more blunt, describing the deal as offering only a ‘facade of free trade for the UK’, while committing London to uphold standards on the environment, workers’ rights and climate change. .
From Spain to Germany, praise has been given to the role played by European unity in achieving this South German newspaper also considered a “relatively good offer”.
“It avoids tariffs on trade in goods, which is especially important for the EU since its states export far more to Britain than they import. The UK, meanwhile, has a trade surplus in services. But here, the deal barely alleviates the complications of ending EU membership. “
For Spain The country, there was particular historical significance in how Germany and France ignored Britain’s last minute attempts to sever their solidarity, including by denying Johnson’s request for one-on-one phone calls with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel at a critical juncture in the negotiations.
“The bells are ringing for the ‘divide and conquer’ tactics that London has used for centuries to block the emergence of a dominant European power,” the newspaper said.
The mirror Markus Becker has suggested that the realities of Brexit would be a blow to the British exceptionalism that helped drive the EU to leave. “Many British politicians and citizens do not see themselves as Europeans among many other Europeans,” he said. “And Britain does not see itself as just one European country among many, but as a very special, even chosen country.
“Of course, not all Brits think like that. But unfortunately, they are not the ones who are currently in charge. This is why leaving their country from the EU is not an unreasonable development.
“The EU will be freer to take the necessary steps to assert itself against the US and China – because it lacks the time to do so. Britain, on the other hand, might need Brexit to realize just how small the role it will play on the world stage really is.
Some on the continent have expressed hope that once Brexit is over, the ideological momentum for anti-EU sentiment will dissipate and a rebuilding of close ties can begin.
José Ignacio Torreblanca, senior researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations, argued that Brexit marked not only Britain’s lowest ebb, but also the “most damaging and irreversible” result of waves of populist sentiment that swept away many Western democracies in 2016.
Write in he World, he painted a picture of a disconnected Britain obsessed with the glories of the past as the rest of the world familiarized themselves with 5G and artificial intelligence: “As the United States dumps the victory of Trump in 2016, to restore their role, influence and image in the rest of the world, Britain is consumed by the conservative elite’s eccentric plan to return to exercise [global] influence of a splendid seclusion position.
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