After months of struggle and delay, feints and setbacks, Brexit negotiators for the United Kingdom and the European Union have finally produced a draft agreement that sets out how Britain will exit the political and economic union it helped create a generation ago.
The withdrawal deal, a technical tome written in euro-legalize and said to exceed 400 pages, will be discussed at an emergency cabinet meeting called by Prime Minister Theresa May for Wednesday afternoon.
May’s spokesman said cabinet ministers have been invited to begin reading the documents ahead of the meeting, where “next steps will be considered” over Britain’s exit from the world’s biggest and richest free trade zone.
What will happen at the cabinet meeting is unknown – although May’s supporters say the prime minister would not be presenting the draft deal if she didn’t think she could muscle it through.
It is possible, however, that some cabinet members, finally faced with the text of May’s softer, slower-moving compromise deal, will balk – and resign or seek delay or press for a return to the negotiating table.
Yet if the cabinet endorses May’s proposed withdrawal terms, the next step would be a Brexit summit attended by leaders of the European Union’s remaining 27 member states in Brussel later this month, with Nov. 24 and 25 penciled in as possible dates.
Following approval by the European leaders, the treaty would go to the British Parliament, where it would face an uncertain fate.
The Telegraph newspaper reported that there could be two cabinet meetings Wednesday: “one to present the deal and another to approve or reject it.”
Whatever happens, this deal is just the first stage of the lengthy process of ratifying the Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. To follow are negotiations over Britain’s future trade, security and economic relations with Europe – including side-deals about immigration levels.
For the past two years, the greatest debate over Brexit has not been waged between Brussels and London, but within May’s fractious Conservative Party, composed of “leavers” and “remainers.”