Aye, and bye!
The European Parliament on Wednesday ratified the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and bid farewell to its British members, capping a two-hour-long debate and more than three-and-a-half years of tortured negotiations between Brussels and the first country to ever quit the EU.
It was a strange and emotional day — one that an overwhelming majority of the Parliament had hoped would never come — with a profusion of farewell parties that involved bagpipes, EU flags and various versions of the song “Auld Lang Syne.” One rendition was by MEPs, many in tears, who held hands and linked arms as they sang in the plenary immediately after casting their historic vote.
The tally was 621 to 49 with 13 abstentions, and it provided certainty — finally — that the U.K. would make an orderly departure from the EU at the stroke of midnight (Brussels time) on Friday.
At that moment, the U.K. will begin a transition period, until December 31, during which it will remain fully obligated to EU rules and laws but will have no formal say in how the bloc makes decisions. The so-called “future relationship” with the EU, including a potential free trade deal, remains to be negotiated.
“I’ve always thought that the country that invented common sense would return to common sense” — Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Commission
In a very real sense, New Year’s Eve now becomes the new “cliff edge” — the point at which economic disarray and administrative chaos could ensue if the two sides don’t clinch a deal. There are major obstacles, especially the EU’s demand for close regulatory alignment and a so-called “level playing field,” and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s push for any competitive advantage to be found in the U.K.’s restored independence.
In a speech to the plenary, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that she hoped for a close relationship but warned of the potentially tough negotiations ahead.
“The Withdrawal Agreement is only a first step,” von der Leyen said. “We have to sort out how to deal with the United Kingdom as a third country.”
She said the EU was prepared to commit to a far-reaching free trade accord — “zero tariffs, and zero quotas, this would be unique,” she said — but that there were crucial strings attached.
Nigel Farage said he expected Johnson to rebuff the EU’s demands in the upcoming trade talks | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
“The precondition is that European and British businesses continue to compete on a level playing field,” von der Leyen said. “We will certainly not expose our companies to unfair competition.”
She also warned that no trade deal, however ambitious, would mirror the perks for the U.K. of EU membership. “No new partnership will bring back the benefits of being part of the same union,” she said.
While many of the pro-EU British MEPs were grief-stricken, their Brexiteer counterparts appeared gleeful and triumphant.
“Once we have left, we are never coming back, and the rest frankly is detail,” Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader and provocateur who made himself a nemesis of EU leaders, gloated. “We love Europe; we just hate the European Union,” Farage said, adding: “You may loathe populism, but I’ll tell you a funny thing: it’s becoming very popular.”
Farage also said he expected Johnson to rebuff the EU’s demands in the upcoming trade talks. “There will be no level playing field,” he said.
The Scottish National Party played bagpipes to accompany British MEPs leaving the Parliament premises.
When Mairead McGuinness, the Irish MEP who chaired the plenary session, asked the MEPs to put down their British flags — waving any flag is a violation of Parliament rules — Farage chirped back: “Well that’s it. It’s all over. Finished. We’re gone.”
But supporters of the EU said the U.K. would not gain an unfair advantage.
Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s Party MEPs, declared that there would be “no cherry picking, no European Singapore next to our markets.”
“We only will grant them access to our market if they respect the European rules,” Weber said.
On a more emotional note, Weber said he hoped a future generation of Brits would decide to return to the EU.
Several Labour MEPs posed for photographs and stood for a minute of silence while the EU and the British anthems played.
“To the colleagues who will leave us, I tell you I hope our work in the next years will make Europe so strong, so attractive that your children and grandchildren will want to be part of the European Union once again.”
The official legislative session was punctuated by an array of festivities, ceremonial events, and farewell tributes.
The Scottish National Party played bagpipes to accompany British MEPs leaving the Parliament premises. (The Scottish parliament voted Thursday to continue flying the EU flag after Brexit.)
A ceremony organized by the Socialist group was packed with teary British assistants, officials and Labour MEPs who applauded loudly when non-British speakers urged the U.K. to soon rejoin the EU.
Branded a “Goodbye-not-Au revoir” farewell, it included a video interview of Labour MEPs describing how their group had contributed to the EU, as well as emotional speeches by high-profile socialists such as Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans and Parliament President David Sassoli.
It was a day that an overwhelming majority of the Parliament had hoped would never come | Yves Herman/AFP via Getty Images
In a speech, Timmermans confessed that he had been “in denial” about Brexit.
“I’ve always thought that by some miracle, the country that invented common sense would return to common sense,” Timmermans said.
Participants also included former MEPs like Joyce Quin, one of the first Labour MEPs elected after the U.K. gained membership of the EU in 1973.
Several Labour MEPs posed for photographs and stood for a minute of silence while the EU and the British anthems played.
Richard Corbett, a veteran Labour MEP, who participated in many institutional changes in the Parliament, paid tribute to all the influential British officials in the EU, including 14 British vice presidents of the Parliament, the 14 British chairs of committees, and the British rapporteurs on the Lisbon and the Maastricht treaties.
“Now you will have to keep on fighting without us, at least for some time,” Corbett said. “What we have achieved here is of historic significance.”
Want more analysis from POLITICO? POLITICO Pro is our premium intelligence service for professionals. From financial services to trade, technology, cybersecurity and more, Pro delivers real time intelligence, deep insight and breaking scoops you need to keep one step ahead. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial.