Brussels, Oct 17 (UNI) Hours before the European Union (EU) summit and days of intense back-and-forth negotiations between London and Brussels, the Britain and EU reached a new Brexit deal on Thursday.
"Where there is a will, there is a deal - we have one! It's a fair and balanced agreement for the EU and the UK and it is a testament to our commitment to find solutions," Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a main party in Northern Ireland, said it could not support the deal, according to European media.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) have also decided to not to vote for this new Brexit deal, the party's leader and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said while labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also spoken out against the new agreement.
"For Scotland, this deal would take us out of EU, single market and customs union - all against our will. It would leave us as only part of UK being taken out without consent and with no say on future relationship. @theSNP will not vote for that," Sturgeon tweeted.
This new deal that has just been agreed is very likely to find support in the European Union and get ratified by October 31, Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator, said Thursday. "I am confident that it [the deal] can be supported and ratified in the time between now and October 31," Barnier told reporters, when asked if the EU leaders could back the deal at the upcoming summit or if they would have to convene a new one. The summit is set to begin later in the day and will last through Friday.
However, the deal has to be approved by the UK parliament as well, and two of UK opposition parties, Labour and the SNP, have already indicated they would not back the deal at the vote expected on Saturday.
Following a referendum in which 52 percent of voters supported withdrawal in June 2016, the British government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, starting a two-year Brexit process which was supposed to conclude with London withdrawing on March 29.
As the British parliament refused to ratify documents negotiated between former British Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU, the deadline has been extended twice to Oct 31.
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