With the agreement of the European Parliament, the EU – UK cooperation and Trade Agreement, which has been in force since 1 January, has been formally adopted.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament formally approved the cooperation and trade agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom. The agreement, which has been in force since 1 January, has thus been formally adopted. The agreement received 660 votes in favour and five against. 32 members of parliament abstained.

On Twitter, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the agreement to the treaty, which she considered to be the basis for”a strong and close partnership with the UK”. “The EU will continue to work constructively with the UK as an important friend and partner,” said European Council President Charles Michel.

Other MEPs regret the UK’s departure from the Union. The Italian president of Parliament David Sassoli says that the band will no longer be “as frictionless as before”. “But it is in all our interests to make it work.”Parliamentarian and former leader of the liberal group Guy Verhofstadt is more critical and wonders whether this is “the first trade agreement in history to create barriers and remove freedoms”. “A failure for both parties, but better than nothing.”

The treaty was concluded last year around Christmas after nine months of negotiations. It formalised a hard Brexit: the UK moved out of the European single market and the customs union and left a number of partnerships. The British parliament approved the agreement earlier.