• Great Angular. United Kingdom seeks its new place in the world one week from Brexit
  • UK.Brexit: chronology of a divorce

MEPs on Wednesday ratified the United Kingdom withdrawal agreement from the European Union (EU), by 621 votes in favor, 49 against and 13 abstentions, sealing the first divorce in the history of the block, on a day marked by the Tears and two-day farewells of Brexit. "It is a sad day for our Parliament ... because our generations saw walls fall," lamented the president of the Eurocamara , David Sassoli , in a ceremony of his political group entitled 'It's not a goodbye, it's a see you later' .

Tears ran down the cheeks of several Social Democratic MEPs, such as their head of ranks Iratxe García , at the time of the British deputies leaving the chamber as decided by the United Kingdom in a referendum in 2016.

After two hours of debate, the full Eurocamara has ruled on the divorce agreement closed in November between London and Brussels after almost three years of unexpected turns, especially in the United Kingdom.

The favorable vote was taken for granted, especially when the competent parliamentary commission adopted it last week by 23 votes against 3 and when the EU is looking forward to turning the page of a Brexit that has consumed its energy for years.

The prominence has thus fallen to the British MEPs who, at 2300 GMT on Friday, will cease to be so, especially in Nigel Farage , champion of Brexit, and that called a party on Friday in Brussels to celebrate it.

"It is the most important date since Henry VIII took us out of the church in Rome. We are leaving the Treaty of Rome," Farage told a news conference, for whom countries such as Denmark, Italy or Poland will follow in the footsteps of the United Kingdom.

Unlike Brexit supporters, European institutions keep a low profile. The official signing of the agreement on Friday by the presidents of the European Commission and Council was made at dawn and without journalists. The Eurocamara seems to follow the same line. Its president has called a "short ceremony" after the vote . The withdrawal of British flags from European institutions will not feature an official ceremony.

"This will be done with all the necessary dignity," said a spokeswoman for the European Parliament, noting that a copy of the 'Union Jack' will be kept in the House of European History in Brussels.

"We do not leave Europe"

The United Kingdom is heading to end 47 years of tumultuous relationship with its European partners. Its ambassador to the EU, Tim Barrow , presented this morning the formal document of ratification and only the process of the European side remains to be completed.

The march gives the tip to an EU that overcame, although not unscathed, an economic and other migratory crisis in recent years and that trusts its future to "green" growth policies and greater control of its borders.

"Even if we leave the EU institutions, we don't leave Europe," British Secretary of State Christopher Pincher said yesterday in Brussels, advocating "friendly cooperation" based "on a free trade agreement."

With the divorce on track, the focus is on the agreement on the future relationship, especially commercial, that both parties must close by the end of 2020, when the planned transition period ends. But, with its withdrawal from the EU, the United Kingdom also regains its freedom to negotiate trade agreements with third countries, such as Donald Trump's United States, which has already set its sights on its transatlantic ally.

Washington, whose diplomacy chief Mike Pompeo travels to the United Kingdom today, has made it a priority to close a trade agreement with the British Government of Boris Johnson in 2020, generating misgivings in the EU.

"We only hope that the United Kingdom will continue to have a traditional relationship with both the EU and the United States," Sassoli said yesterday to the AFP, for whom it is "of interest to all" to cooperate.

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