After seven years of Brexit negotiations, Europe has emerged as the clear winner

Ms. von der Leyen’s tea limited watershed travel. On 27 February she reached an agreement with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, on how to handle issues relating to Northern Ireland. This was the final and most difficult piece of the Brexit puzzle, as the region needed to remain part of both the EU single market and the United Kingdom in order to avoid reinstating the previously troublesome border with Ireland. A complex deal has put the issue on the backburner. The divorce between Britain and Europe was declared legal in 2020, four years after the referendum in June 2016. But only now do we know what future living arrangements will look like.

Wonx is currently “Considering”windsor frame“. It looks like a balanced agreement that allows both sides to save face and move on. Looking at the overall shape of Brexit, as it has been negotiated over the past seven years, however, leaves a different impression Just a glance at the artists present in the final stages of Brexit talks gives an indication that politics has had a tough time since the talks began. Mr Sunak is Britain’s fifth prime minister since the referendum, and his Conservative The party is headed for a massive defeat next year, thanks in no small part to the endless wrangles over Brexit. Ms von der Leyen, by contrast, is just the second person in her job in that time, and will likely face a five-year term next spring. Will get another term. The way Britain left the European Union has turned into a national drama; Polls indicate most Brits think leaving the club was a mistake. Dealing with Britain’s latest twist in Brussels just a topical agenda point Was.

Vote Leave campaigners had claimed that London would “hold all the cards” in negotiations with the EU. In fact the opposite turned out to be true. Britain imagines it can devise a way to leave the union, but few things it cares about, like access to the single market. or did it? In fact nobody ever worked out what Britain really wanted. Setting priorities was too classy for the likes of Boris Johnson, a foreign-turned-prime minister who steered Britain through much of the bargaining. It’s better to quip about wanting to have your cake and eat it too. A rotating cast of Brits came to Brexit talks with vague notions of being treated like Switzerland or Ukraine. Opposite them were seasoned Eurocrats carrying weighty briefing packs pointing out why this should not happen.

This was no expert team to be beaten at the negotiating table, yet the EU deserves praise. Its objectives were clear: Brexit should be a one-off event, not a precedent. Any country remaining in the EU can be in no doubt that leaving the club will make it worse. To achieve this, Britain would need to get a raw deal. London hoped it could divide and conquer the remaining 27 EU members. Often a shrewd negotiator for its own self-interest, in the 47 years it was a member of the bloc, it went out to sea to negotiate against it. Michel Barnier, a former French foreign minister who became Brussels’ point man on Brexit, ensured national capitals were kept fully prepared to accelerate negotiations.

When it came to the specifics of coming to an agreement on the terms, the EU’s triumph was to play to its reputation as an inflexible bureaucracy capable of only ticking. Countries seeking to join the EU are familiar with this approach – here’s what you do, do it now – which was widely recycled for the only country trying to leave it. Once the 27 remaining countries had decided among themselves what they thought was appropriate, Britain had no choice but to jump through the hoop designed by her negotiating enemies. The tone was set early. To move to the next stage of negotiations Britain had to agree to give more than £35 billion ($42 billion), for example, to finance its share of future Eurocrat pensions. It tried to quibble but eventually had to pay. And so it went.

one last insult to the street

In an irony that will not give any sleepless nights to Brexit negotiators left in London, the Windsor deal shows that the inflexible-EU approach has always been a work in progress. It turns out that there was a lot of scope for the commission to accept the British demands and later seek permission from the member states. It didn’t want to before. In fact, Britain got a better deal than anyone expected, although that’s not saying much. Partly that’s because the EU long ago achieved its main objective: even the continent’s most rabid populists don’t think it would be better to leave the club these days. The departure of Mr Johnson, once a purveyor of Brussels-bashing stories for the Daily Telegraph, also helped. The war in Ukraine has emphasized the importance of continental unity: Britain remains a major NATO ally. The US put pressure on both sides for an agreement. Having negotiated a victory from Bulldozer, the EU saw little point in talking to the home side.

The offer of a royal meet and greet was only a hint that a happier relationship between Britain and the continent might be in the offing. Nothing is likely to change in the short term: elections are due across the continent in Europe next spring, just months before elections are held in Britain. For the time being, all the parties are relieved that after seven years of negotiations, the deal has finally been done. But one side has much more to be happy about than the other.

Read more from Charlemagne, our columnist on European politics:

Why Vladimir Putin will never stand trial in The Hague (23 February)

What lies behind France’s fatal fascination with Russia? (16 February)

Europe should not respond to US subsidies with its own mistakes (February 9)

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