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BRUSSELS – The European Union has removed the last major obstacle to concluding an agreement on Brexit after Spain announced Saturday it had reached an agreement with Britain over Gibraltar, on the eve of a summit at which EU leaders will approve the divorce acts. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, recommended Saturday to the EU to approve the agreement, reported BBC News.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, which had preparatory talks with European leaders on Saturday night, will then have the crucial task of selling the terms of the agreement to a recalcitrant British parliament and an ever-divided nation on whether the UK must leave the EU on March 29 and under what conditions.
May promised to campaign "with all my heart" to get the support of Parliament in favor of the agreement. "
Even within the EU, which approves the agreement, the UK Parliament still has to adopt it – and many MEPs opposed the deal. BBC News political correspondent Ben Wright said May "is facing incredibly difficult work" to get MPs to sign the deal.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who had threatened to oppose the deal, announced Saturday that Madrid would support the divorce agreement after the UK and EU had stressed Spain's role in the future of the disputed British territory of Gibraltar, located at the southern tip of the Mediterranean nation.
Spain hopes that the future of this tiny territory, ceded to Great Britain in 1713 but still claimed by Spain, is a bilateral problem between Madrid and London, and not between Britain and the EU.
In a letter obtained by the Associated Press, the presidents of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and Tusk, assured Sanchez that "the prior agreement" of Spain would be necessary on issues concerning Gibraltar.
Spain has claimed a major diplomatic victory.
"Europe and the United Kingdom have accepted the conditions imposed by Spain," Sanchez said. "As a result, Spain vetoes and will vote tomorrow in favor of Brexit."
But Britain said the statement only clarified the existing situation. May said that Britain had not conceded anything about the sovereignty of Gibraltar.
"I will always be with Gibraltar," said May. "The position of the United Kingdom on the sovereignty of Gibraltar has not changed and will not change."
This initiative should allow EU leaders to quickly sign the Brexit agreement at an extraordinary summit on Sunday morning.
May hopes to be able to leave the EU's siege on Sunday with a legally-binding deal on the conditions for withdrawing Britain's departure on March 29, as well as an ambitious but vague political statement on relations between the United States. two parts.
It will probably be easier for May to receive the warm greetings of her 27 fellow leaders on Sunday, rather than receiving friendly treatment from her government and parliament colleagues on her return. The British leader is under intense pressure from British lawmakers in favor of Brexit and the European Union. A large number of people on both sides of the debate oppose the divorce agreement and threaten to reject it when it will be presented to Parliament next month.
The Brexiteers believe that the UK will remain too tied to EU rules, while pro-Europeans say it will erect new barriers between Britain and the bloc, its neighbor and its neighbor. largest trading partner.
The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, on which May backed a majority of her government, on Saturday reinforced her party's rejection of the Brexit deal. The DUP opposes the plans to maintain the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, a member of the EU, after Brexit, claiming that this would weaken the links between the EU and the EU. United Kingdom by creating separate trade rules for Northern Ireland.
Arlene Foster told Belfast that the deal left Northern Ireland "exposed to the dangers of further divergence from the rest of the UK".
The DUP said it could abandon support for the government because of the Brexit plan.
May insists that his contract meets the needs of Brexit-friendly voters – budget control, immigration policy and laws – while maintaining close ties with the European neighbors in the UK.
She plans to spend the next two weeks selling it to politicians and the British public before the vote in Parliament in December.
In a "letter to the nation" before Sunday's summit, May said she "would campaign with all my heart to win this vote and deliver this Brexit deal, for the sake of our UK and all of our people ".
She said the departure of Britain from the EU "must mark the point when we put aside the labels" Leave "and" Stay "for good and we gather again as a people ".
"To do that, we must now agree on Brexit by subscribing to this agreement."
Friday, May said that the UK should not expect a "better deal" from the EU if the deputies rejected its agreement on Brexit, reports BBC News.
But May declined to say whether the UK would be better off outside the EU, saying only that it would be "different".
