EU leaders endorse Brexit deal at special summit

By CNN VIA Citizen
Digital
All 27 remaining European Union leaders
signed off Britain’s Brexit agreement with mixed emotions at a special summit
on Sunday — but the deal’s real test is yet to come.
While EU leaders mourned a “sad day” in
the bloc’s decades-long history, UK Prime Minister Theresa May disagreed,
saying “I am full of optimism.”
Less than an hour after members gathered
in Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that they had
endorsed the “Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration on the future
EU-UK relations.”
The agreement is a small victory for May,
who must now persuade lawmakers in the UK Parliament to vote for her deal.
Given that opposition parties — not to
mention many lawmakers within May’s Conservative party and the Northern Irish
DUP, which supports her minority government — have indicated they’ll vote
against it, the deal is far from sealed.
Shortly after European leaders endorsed
the deal, DUP leader Arlene Foster reiterated that her party “will not be able
to support” it, during an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
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If UK lawmakers do approve the deal, which
looks highly doubtful, it will then go to the European Parliament.
But if Westminster stops the deal in its
tracks, then Brexit could go a number of ways — including exiting the bloc
without a deal at all, or, just possibly, a second referendum that could scrap
Brexit altogether.
It would also cast serious doubt on May’s
future as prime minister, already under intense scrutiny from Brexiteers within
her own party unhappy with what they say is a “soft” exit from European
regulations.
When asked by reporters Sunday if she
would consider stepping down if the deal flounders in Parliament, May said “this
is not about me.”
“My focus for the next few weeks is making
this deal possible,” she said, adding, “if people think there’s another
negotiation to be done, that’s not the case.”
Juncker also urged the UK Parliament to
vote for the deal, set to happen before Christmas. Pointing his finger in the
air for emphasis during a news conference, Juncker addressed lawmakers back in
London: “This is the best thing possible for Britain, the best thing possible
for Europe…this is the only deal possible.”
Meanwhile former UK Prime Minister and
pro-EU campaigner Tony Blair had a different take, telling the BBC Andrew Marr
Show that a second referendum was “the only way you are going to unite the
country.”
EU leaders mourn ‘sad day’
The mood among EU leaders gathering in
Brussels was bleak, with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
telling reporters that it was a “sad day.”
“To see a country like Great Britain…
leave the EU is not a moment of joy nor of celebration, it’s a sad moment and
it’s a tragedy,” he said.
Speaking of the “shared sadness” felt by
members, he added this was not a moment of “raising champagne glasses.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck a
similarly sombre tone, telling reporters it was “tragic” that Britain was
exiting the EU but “good” the two sides had reached an agreement.
“I feel sad.. but also a sense of relief
that we were able to achieve what we have,” she said.
Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron
said Brexit had proved that “our European Union has a certain fragility” and
that “it can always be improved.”
When asked by reporters if May shared this
sadness, she said, “No. But I recognize that some European leaders are sad and
some people back at home will be as well.”
Prime Minister May, perhaps
unsurprisingly, was more optimistic in a letter to the British public on
Saturday evening.
“It is a deal for a brighter future,” she
wrote. Britain is set to exit the EU on March 29 next year, and May said it
will be a “moment of renewal and reconciliation for our whole country.”
Spain had threatened to derail the
Brussels summit after last-minute disagreements over Gibraltar — a British territory
on the Iberian Peninsula — but these were resolved in negotiations Saturday.
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