European Parliament Ratifies EU-UK Trade Deal

On Wednesday, the European Parliament overwhelmingly gave its seal of approval to the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) that had been agreed on Christmas Eve last year.

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Six hundred sixty votes adopted the decision in favor, five against, and 32 abstentions. The concurrent resolution, setting out the parliament's evaluation of and expectations from the deal, passed by 578 votes, with 51 against and 68 abstentions.

The vote took place on Tuesday, with results announced on Wednesday.

In a last-ditch attempt last December, EU, and UK negotiators had agreed on the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) when they established the terms for future EU-UK cooperation.

To minimize disruption, the agreement has been provisionally applied since the beginning of this year and valid until the end of April.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen immediately welcomed the news, which brings to an end more than four years of acrimonious negotiations between the two sides.

"I warmly welcome the@Europarl_EN vote in favor of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The TCA marks the foundation of a strong and close partnership with the UK. Faithful implementation is essential," she wrote on Twitter.

The UK joined the EU bloc in 1973 but announced its withdrawal in 2016 after a referendum.

ACCORDING TO THE LATEST FIGURES PUBLISHED BY EUROSTAT, the EU-UK trade in goods has been deeply affected by Brexit, the EU's statistical office.

In the first two months of 2021, exports from the bloc to the UK fell 20.2 percent compared to last year, while the EU's imports from the UK recorded an even sharper decrease of 47 percent.