The new Brexit agreement is better for the EU and worse for the UK, and leads to the collapse of the country, experts say.
“The agreement that Boris Johnson signed, it is probably worse than the agreement that Theresa may achieved. Because the problem of the Irish border, it is, in General, unsolvable… in the agreement signed by Theresa may, the problem of the Irish border was solved through a long stay of the whole country in the EU customs Union and the absence of its own trade policy, Johnson went to what the conservative unionist party should not go”, – said the head of the center for political integration of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lyudmila Babynina during a round table in “Russia today”.
According to her, “the transfer of the customs border to the Irish Sea and the consent that Northern Ireland will be, in fact, in the EU legal regulation does not mean Johnson’s victory, rather, the European Union sold what it wanted to sell”.
The head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said on October 28 that the EU agreed to postpone Brexit on January 31, 2020 at the request of the United Kingdom, which has not yet ratified the Brexit agreement.
Under the new Brexit agreement, Northern Ireland will remain British customs territory after Britain exits the EU. In this case, customs duties will not be paid for goods imported into Northern Ireland from another part of the United Kingdom, unless this product is “at risk of subsequent transfer to the Union”.
The previous version of the deal, which was agreed by the European Union and the British government almost a year ago, was rejected three times by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, because the country’s authorities did not like the mechanism of the so-called border support between Ireland (EU country) and Northern Ireland (part of the UK), the island.
According to Igor Kovalev, First Deputy Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics, it’s hard to say that the current British Prime Minister Boris Johnson achieved something significant and proved to be an outstanding political figure. He emphasized that this is not Johnson’s agreement, since the document May signed did not change a word.
“The only thing they have made changes, but they have made changes to the political resolution to this agreement. Moreover, the changes are not in favor of Britain. That is, in fact, these changes and the drawing of the maritime border along the Irish Sea – this is the beginning of the collapse of the United Kingdom. They actually already give the North Ireland, they are ready to sacrifice Northern Ireland to maintain sovereignty over the rest. But this is very dangerous”, – said Kovalev.
Babynina, in turn, noted that the UK, even three years after the vote on Brexit, remains split. Speaking about the results of the elections to the European Parliament, she noted that “if you look at the results of the vote, then the balance between those who are for leaving and those who are against leaving is practically preserved”.
“Moreover, it has been preserved both in percentage terms and even territorially. That is, if the results of the European Parliament elections are superimposed in numbers and territories, they practically coincide with the 2016 referendum (about Brexit). It remains deeply divided”, – she said.