Guy Verhofstadt, (Parliament's Brexit coordinator) on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Madam President, first of all, I would like to welcome the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration. I think that we can say easily today that both have been built around the principles of the European Union – that means the integrity of the Single Market, that means the four freedoms which underpin that Single Market and that means the ability, the capacity of the European Union to decide in an autonomous way.

But I have to tell you, and I think it’s important in these debates, that also two other elements have been taken into account. The first are naturally the positions – maybe I have to say the red lines – of the UK Government following the decision to end the membership of the European Union. Then, a second important point that underpins this agreement or these agreements, and that is something often underplayed and not fully understood, is the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, though the European Union is in fact not a direct party in this. The 1998 Agreement was only possible among EU Member States, between EU Member States, and it shows, in my opinion, that the European Union is about that, about reconciliation, about the end of violence, about peace. The result of all this is the withdrawal agreement, and I think the only and best agreement possible, considering these three elements that I have just described.

In achieving this, I would like to thank, naturally, and congratulate – it’s not the first time that I’m doing this – Michel Barnier personally. He has done a tremendous job in close cooperation with the European Parliament and with the Brexit Steering Group, and this also gives me the possibility to congratulate all the members of the Brexit Steering Group for the good cooperation beyond the lines of the political parties. I think that it worked very well.

Now, the result, Michel, is an agreement that, in my opinion, does three things. The first is to minimise the disruption for both sides, in particular for the economy, and to allow for an orderly withdrawal and allow for a timeframe between two and four years to conclude the negotiations on the future relationship. The second result is to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, to safeguard the Good Friday Agreement and to secure peace. Then the third thing – and I think this was the first priority of the European Parliament – is to safeguard the rights of all citizens. Here the European Parliament has, with the help and with the support of our negotiators, significantly improved the agreement and the text. Moreover, we are also committed – and I want to tell you this today – to ensuring that, before we start the consent procedure in the European Parliament, we receive from our British counterparts the necessary guarantees that all these citizens’ rights will be fully implemented.

I believe that this framework – withdrawal agreement and political declaration – provides for the possibility to establish in the future a really close relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom and the basis, therefore, as you have seen in the agreement, in the political declaration, is an association agreement, as the European Parliament has proposed from day one. Why an association agreement, on which also the British Government has agreed? Well, it will be applicable, once concluded, in a provisional way after approval at the European level. Secondly, it will be ratified in one round of ratification by the Member States, so as to avoid – if I may say so – the complexity of, for example, our relationship with Switzerland, which is based not on one association agreement, but on a patchwork of agreements.

The Brexit Steering Group, along with the whole European Parliament, will further scrutinise the deal, the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration on the future relationship, as part of the consent procedure.