Brussels and London have dodged the cliff when they had almost both feet out.
Seven days after the end of the transition period agreed at the beginning of the year, and after Brexit went from being a political decision to a legal reality with all its consequences, the negotiating teams led by Michel Barnier (EU) and David Frost ( United Kingdom) have managed to close this Thursday the trade agreement that will regulate relations between the island and the continent in the coming years.
The future access and quotas of EU fishermen to British waters has been the most difficult stumbling block to the end.
The text should enter into force provisionally on January 1, because it is already clear that the European Parliament will not be able to ratify it before the end of 2020.
Boris Johnson may try to convene the House of Commons on December 30, but first he will have to make sure he has the Eurosceptic MPs on his side who longed for a clean and unconditional break with the European Union.
The prime minister, according to some British conservative media, called his ministers on Wednesday night to ask them to help him "sell an agreement" that "respects the sovereignty of both the United Kingdom and the EU."
The debacle experienced in recent hours, with thousands of truckers trapped in the British port of Dover after France closed the passage for 48 hours to prevent the spread of the new strain of coronavirus, has been a warning of what would have meant a Hard Brexit and a spur to finally close the negotiating process.
The agreement maintains practically intact the commercial relationship between the two banks of the English Channel, a huge flow that moves goods worth more than 500,000 million euros a year.
If the text is accepted by the 27 governments of the EU, the treaty could enter into force provisionally on January 1, marking the beginning of a new era in the continent's relations with the United Kingdom after 47 years of difficult coexistence within the Union.
After leaving the club on January 31, the former member now definitively leaves the internal market and the customs union.
A total and reciprocal opening of the markets will be maintained.
British companies will have unlimited and permanent access to a market of 450 million people.
And European companies will be able to continue trading with the United Kingdom under the same conditions as at present, which keeps them open a market to which they allocate 18% of their extra-EU exports.
The end of the transition will complicate business contacts, as customs and tax obligations are introduced.
But the agreement reached this Thursday avoids the application of tariffs and import quotas, which will facilitate commercial exchanges and, above all, will allow to maintain the integration of the production chains that in sectors such as the automotive or aeronautical sectors cross from one side to another. another from the English Channel.
Both parties expect turbulence in the coming months, and that is why they have negotiated mutual monitoring mechanisms and possible retaliation if the agreement is breached.
Possible unfair competition from the UK worried the EU.
Johnson won the election on the promise of flooding the impoverished north of England with infrastructure and technological investments.
Brussels feared that London would launch to publicly subsidize national companies, lower taxes or lower its labor, environmental or consumer rights regulations to give its own companies a competitive advantage.
The last stumbling block in the negotiation, however, has revolved around a sector as traditional as fishing.
After Brexit, London sought to prevent the entry of the continental fishing fleet into British-influenced waters (up to 200 miles), fishing grounds where European fishermen have fished for hundreds of years.
It has been a haggling of figures, percentages and species.
And enough years of transition for the European fishing industry to adapt to future cuts.
The French government lobbied in defense of its fishermen.
Johnson had to save face against Scottish industry, the most powerful in the United Kingdom in this sector, at a time when independence aspirations have taken on new flight.
The process for the next few days seems easier on the EU side, although surprises cannot be ruled out.
The treaty must be reviewed by the committee of permanent representatives of the 27 partners in Brussels, with the rank of ambassadors.
The diplomatic green light should be confirmed by the 27 governments in the capitals.
And the European Parliament could call a meeting of the chairmen of the parliamentary groups to give their first opinion on the text.
A ratification by the Chamber before the end of the year is ruled out, so Brussels has looked for legal alternatives that do not leave any gap, to avoid possible border or customs chaos.
The formula with the most possibilities will be the provisional application of the treaty, which can be decided by the 27 partners.
Or at least, of the chapters of the text that allow to preserve a fluid commercial traffic as of January 1.
The European Research Group
(European Research Group), which brings together dozens of Eurosceptic conservative MPs, has already announced that its steering committee and experts are ready to start reviewing the details of the agreed text as soon as it reaches their hands.
It was this pressure group that maneuvered to stop the agreement that the previous prime minister, Theresa May, closed with Brussels.
And they ended up causing his resignation and the coming to power of Boris Johnson.
The prime minister must now embark on the task of convincing them that the new deal is a victory for the UK and the possibility of finally concluding, four years after the referendum, the long Brexit journey.
Immersed in a colossal health and economic crisis, there seems to be no appetite for new skirmishes within the party.
And the Labor opposition, led by its new leader, Keir Starmer, also wants to leave behind the European debate, which divided its ranks as much as those of the Conservatives.
Even if there are some foreseeable abstentions or votes against, Starmer trusts that his parliamentary group supports the text.
Some parliamentary sources indicate that the Government could summon the deputies on December 30 for an extraordinary session of the House of Commons that would ratify, as the period of the transition period almost expires, the new agreement.
And Johnson would manage to close a year that has been disastrous for him with a victory that the conservative tabloid press already celebrated with great fanfare in its first editions this Thursday.