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Brexit deal agreed, but will British parliament back it?

17.10.2019 12:23
Britain and the EU agreed a Brexit deal on Thursday, just ahead of a summit of European leaders in Brussels, the BBC has reported.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Photo: EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

The impact of Britain’s shock 2016 decision to withdraw from the bloc has been closely watched in Warsaw as there are around a million Poles living in the UK, constituting that country’s largest minority community.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter on Thursday: "We've got a great new deal."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said it was a "fair and balanced agreement," according to the BBC.

Juncker wrote in a letter that he would recommend that the leaders of the other 27 EU member states approve the deal, the Reuters news agency reported.

In a letter recommending the deal to European Council President Donald Tusk, Juncker said it was “high time” to complete the divorce process and move on as swiftly as possible to negotiations on the European Union's future partnership with Britain.

The agreement, hammered out during weeks of talks, has to be backed by both the British and European parliaments.

But the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which Johnson needs to help ratify a deal, says it cannot support it.

Johnson hopes to secure backing for the agreement in a vote at an extraordinary session of the British parliament on Saturday in order to pave the way for an orderly divorce on October 31, Reuters reported.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in January that a no-deal Brexit would be “a bad solution” for both Britain and the European Union.

After their country joined the bloc in 2004, Poles headed off in droves to Britain and other EU member states in search of better paid jobs.

(pk/gs)

Source: BBC/Reuters