Tears and cheers as EU lawmakers give final nod to Brexit

The European Parliament gave final approval to Britain’s divorce from the European Union on Wednesday, paving the way for the country to quit the bloc on Friday after nearly half a century and delivering a major setback for European integration.

After an emotional debate during which several speakers shed tears, EU lawmakers voted 621 for and 49 against the Brexit agreement sealed between Britain and the 27 other member states last October, more than three years since Britons voted out.

Thirteen MEPs abstained and the chamber then broke into a rendition of Auld Lang Syne, a traditional Scottish folk song of farewell. Britain’s 73 departing EU lawmakers headed for an “Au Revoir” party in the EU chamber after the vote.

Earlier on Wednesday, Britain’s ambassador to the EU handed documents formalising Brexit to a senior EU official. Against a backdrop of British and EU flags at the bloc’s Brussels headquarters, Tim Barrow, smiling, passed over a dark blue leather file embossed with the emblem of the United Kingdom.

After protracted divorce talks, Britain will leave the club it joined in 1973 at midnight Brussels time (2300 GMT) on Friday, when British flags will be removed from EU offices and the EU flag lowered on the British premises there.

With a status-quo transition period running only until year-end, fresh talks – covering everything from trade to security – will begin soon on a new relationship.

“We are considering a zero-tariff, zero-quotas free trade agreement. But the precondition is that EU and British businesses continue to compete on a level playing field. We will certainly not expose our companies to unfair competition,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen told the chamber.

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier told envoys of the remaining 27 members earlier on Wednesday that a loose association agreement like the EU has with Ukraine should serve as the basis for new relations, diplomatic sources said.

“We will not give ground on issues that are important to us,” Barnier said, according to sources briefed on the closed-door meeting.

“THE UK DIDN’T FIT”

BRITISH MEP MOLLY SCOTT CATO SAYING: “Now is not the time to campaign to rejoin, but we must keep the dream alive. Especially, for young people who are overwhelmingly pro-European. I hold in my heart that I will one day be back in this chamber celebrating our return to the heart of Europe. Thank you” But it wasn’t all words of friendship – UK MEP and architect of the vote leave campaign, Nigel Farage.

BRITISH MEP NIGEL FARAGE SAYING: ”There’s a historic battle going on now across the West, in Europe, America and elsewhere. It’s globalism against populism and you may loathe populism but I tell you one thing it’s becoming very popular. It has great benefits. No more financial contributions, no more European Court of Justice, no more common fisheries policies, no more being bullied”

But if MEP’s were hoping this goodbye was an end to the years of wrangling of what the future UK/EU relationship will look like – they would be sorely mistaken. With a transition period running until year-end – for now there won’t be any changes but fresh talks – covering everything from trade to security. So for the moment- everything stays the same – Just without the Union Jacks hanging in Strasbourg and Brussels.

On his last working day as a member of the European Parliament, leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage told reporters there was “no going back” once the UK leaves.

“The UK didn’t fit, we’d be better off out,” he said, describing euroscepticism as a settled view in the UK, where “Leave” won the 2016 referendum by a narrow 52 to 48 percent margin.

He said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised him there would be no so-called ‘level playing field’ clauses on fair competition in the new EU-UK deal, highlighting a major point of contention with the bloc in the coming talks.

As Farage beamed, his Brexit Party lawmakers waved goodbye to the chamber with mini Union Jack flags and chanted “Hurray!”, but their Socialist compatriot Jude Kirton-Darling choked back tears.

“It’s probably the saddest day of my life so far. Brexit is something that attacks the very foundation of our identity,” said Kirton-Darling, who plans to stay in Brussels with her Belgian husband.

Guy Verhofstadt, a liberal EU lawmaker from Belgium and a staunch europhile, lamented Brexit as a historic debacle: “It’s sad to see a country leaving that twice liberated us, twice gave its blood to liberate Europe.”

As a new reality dawns on Europe from Saturday, the UK’s Permanent Representation to the EU, or UKRep, will become a foreign mission – already dubbed “UKmissEU” by some.