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The European Union (EU) has stated that it will assess the agreement between the two leaders Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron on the return of migrants to see if it complies with the spirit of the law.
While the UK has said it is confident the deal will be approved, a European Commission spokesman said it wanted to know more about the "substance and form" of the agreement before expressing support.
The agreement was reached on Thursday by the United Kingdom and France with the aim of stopping the flow of small ships through the channel through a "one entry, one exit" system.
Around 50 migrants a week will be deported back to France in exchange for allowing other migrants to seek asylum in the UK via a safe and legal route, where they have not attempted to cross in a small boat.
Under the Brexit deal, France is obliged to consult the commission on the bilateral agreement because migration is a competence of the whole bloc. It will have to be ratified by the commission and EU states, five of which, Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus and Greece, have criticised the deal.
Steve Peers, a professor of EU law at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the commission could not realistically break the deal.
He said there was an example of the commission suing a member state about 10 years ago when a number of countries signed bilateral aviation treaties with the US. In addition, case law made it “difficult to say” what the commission could or would do.
Italy, Spain, Malta, Cyprus and Greece sent a joint letter to Brussels last month opposing the deal, at a time when the EU is struggling to implement hard-won legislation, pursuing a bloc-wide approach to asylum and migration.
A diplomat from one of the five signatory countries said he understood that France had to “give the UK something to appease public opinion” at a time when the whole EU wants to keep the British government committed to future defence and security in the face of continued Russian aggression.
But the diplomat said he was surprised by the content of the deal, which would start with the return of 50 people a week, one in 17 of the average weekly arrivals by small boats this year so far.
Other nations say the UK deal is simply “almost meaningless” because France can return migrants to their country of arrival under the EU’s Dublin rules. More than 21,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in simple boats this year.
Many details of the scheme remain unclear, such as the number of people who will be returned, how those involved will be selected, and when it will begin.
Speaking to LBC radio on Friday, Cooper said he did not expect the launch to be delayed due to opposition from Europe, despite concern from Mediterranean countries about the prospects of returned asylum seekers travelling back to southern Europe.
Asked if she was confident it would be approved by the EU, she said: “Since we have done this work to the end, we expect the EU commission to continue to be supportive.”
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