BRUSSELS \u2014 After months of hesitation, stop-and-start negotiations and resignations, Britain and the European Union on Sunday finally sealed an agreement governing the\u2026<\/b>
\nBRUSSELS \u2014 After months of hesitation, stop-and-start negotiations and resignations, Britain and the European Union on Sunday finally sealed an agreement governing the U. K.\u2019s departure from the bloc next year.
So much for the easy part.
British Prime Minister Theresa May must now sell the deal to her divided Parliament \u2014 a huge task considering the intense opposition from pro-Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers alike \u2014 to ensure Britain can leave with a minimum of upheaval on March 29.
It\u2019s a hard sell. The agreement leaves Britain outside the EU with no say but still subject to its rules and the obligations of membership at least until the end of 2020, possibly longer. Britons voted to leave in June 2016, largely over concerns about immigration and losing sovereignty to Brussels.
EU leaders were quick to warn that no better offer is available.
\u201cI am totally convinced this is the only deal possible,\u201d European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said. \u201cThose who think that by rejecting the deal that they would have a better deal will be disappointed the first seconds after the rejection.\u201d
For once, May was in complete agreement.
\u201cThis is the deal that is on the table,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is the best possible deal. It is the only deal.\u201d
Acknowledging the vast political and economic consequences of Brexit, May promised lawmakers their say before Christmas and said that it \u201cwill be one of the most significant votes that Parliament has held for many years.\u201d
She argued that Parliament has a duty \u201cto deliver Brexit\u201d as voters have demanded.
\u201cThe British people don\u2019t want to spend any more time arguing about Brexit,\u201d she said. \u201cThey want a good deal done that fulfills the vote and allows us to come together again as a country.\u201d
Not all agree. Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the deal \u201cthe result of a miserable failure of negotiation that leaves us with the worst of all worlds,\u201d and said his party would oppose it. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party is the third-largest in Parliament, said lawmakers \u201cshould reject it and back a better alternative.\u201d
Pro-Brexit former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said May should insist on new terms because the deal \u201chas ceded too much control\u201d to Brussels.
On the EU side, the last big obstacle to a deal with Britain was overcome Saturday when Spain lifted its objections over the disputed British territory of Gibraltar.
So it took EU leaders only a matter of minutes at Sunday\u2019s summit in Brussels to endorse the withdrawal agreement that settles Britain\u2019s divorce bill, protects the rights of U. K. and EU citizens hit by Brexit and keeps the Irish border open. They also backed a 26-page document laying out their aims for relations after Brexit.
Still, the event was tinged with sadness on the European side at Britain\u2019s departure, the first time a country will leave the 28-nation bloc.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her feelings were \u201cambivalent, with sadness, but on the other hand, also some kind of relief that we made it to this point.\u201d
\u201cI think we managed to make a diplomatic piece of art,\u201d she said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the deal \u2014 the product of a year and a half of often- grueling negotiations \u2014 was regrettable but acceptable.
\u201cI believe that nobody is winning. We are all losing because of the U. K. leaving,\u201d Rutte said. \u201cBut given that context, this is a balanced outcome with no political winners.\u201d
May said she wasn\u2019t sad, because Britain and the EU would remain \u201cfriends and neighbors.\u201d
\u201cI recognize some European leaders are sad at this moment, but also some people back at home in the U. K. will be sad at this moment,\u201d she told reporters, but insisted that she was \u201cfull of optimism\u201d about Britain\u2019s future.
The European Parliament, meanwhile, will be in full campaign mode a few months ahead of the EU elections when Europe\u2019s lawmakers sit to endorse the agreement, probably in February, but perhaps as late as March, according to the assembly\u2019s president, Antonio Tajani.
Still, Tajani said a \u201clarge majority\u201d of European parliamentarians support the deal.
Many predict it will fail in the British Parliament. No one can be sure whether that would lead to the fall of the government, a new referendum, a postponement of Brexit or a chaotic \u201cno deal\u201d exit for Britain.
But Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he thought May\u2019s chances of getting the agreement through Parliament were strong.
He said British lawmakers would see that \u201cthe alternative is a no deal, cliff-edge Brexit, which is something of course that we all want to avoid.\u201d
\u201cAny other deal really only exists in people\u2019s imaginations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n