February 4, 2020

ENGLAND: Brexit Is Official. On January 31st, The United Kingdom Has Officially Left The European Union. Find Out What Happens Next? Congratulations! So Happy For You! 😄👏🎉💖

Fox News
written by Louis Casiano
Saturday January 1, 2020

The United Kingdom officially left the European Union on Friday, entering into a period of uncertainty after three years of bitter wrangling over Brexit and tense negotiations over the terms of divorce between London and Brussels.

The departure became official at 11 p.m. London time when the clock struck midnight in the Belgian capital, where the EU is headquartered. Thousands of Brexit supporters waving Union Jack flags gathered outside Parliament to celebrate the severing of the 47-year relationship.

A recording of Big Ben's bells sounded out as crowds sang "God Save the Queen."

Brexit supporters had been looking forward to this moment since June 23, 2016, when 52 percent of the public voted to walk away from the EU, the successor to the European Communities it joined in 1973. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the departure “a moment of real national renewal and change.”

“This is the single most important moment in the modern history of our great nation,” Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, told the crowd.

Some mourned the loss of their EU identity, with several vigils being held across the U.K. Ann Jones joined dozens of other so-called "remainers" on a march to the EU’s mission in London.

“Many of us want to just mark our sadness in public,” she said.

Candlelight vigils were held in several Scottish cities, government buildings in Edinburgh were lit up in the EU’s blue and yellow, and the bloc’s flag continued to fly outside the Scottish Parliament.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Brexit was “a moment of profound sadness.”

There was also sadness in Brussels as British flags were quietly removed from the bloc’s many buildings, before being folded and taken away.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Brexit a “historic alarm signal” that should force the EU to improve itself.

“It’s a sad day, let’s not hide it,” he said in a televised address. “But it is a day that must also lead us to do things differently.”

Johnson, who won a December general election victory with his promise to get Brexit done, insisted post-Brexit Britain would be “simultaneously a great European power and truly global in our range and ambitions.”

“We want this to be the beginning of a new era of friendly cooperation between the EU and an energetic Britain,” Johnson said in a pre-recorded video address to the country broadcast an hour Brexit became official.

An 11-month transition period now follows as Britain and the EU will negotiate new agreements on trade and a number of other issues. Britons, in the meantime, will see very little change.

Brexit supporters argue Britain's departure will allow it to strike trade deals with countries like the United States and growing Asian markets.

Breaking away from the EU also raises concerns for residents in Ireland and Northern Ireland, where protecting the peace after the Good Friday agreement of 1998 was a top priority.

The agreement ended three decades of sectarian violence known as the "Troubles" between groups that wanted to reunify Ireland and those who favored Northern Ireland remaining in Britain.
BBC News, UK
written by Staff
Friday January 31, 2020

It's official - the UK has left the European Union.

A cause for celebration for some, a sobering moment for others. The UK formally ended its EU membership at the stroke of midnight on Friday in Brussels, 23:00 GMT in London.

A projection of a countdown clock in Downing Street marked the occasion.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed the "dawn of a new era", promising "real national renewal" after 47 years of EU membership.

With the divorce now sealed, one chapter of Brexit has come to an end. The next, however, has only just begun.

This is where we are now.

What will change?

At first, not much.

An 11-month transition period has begun and the UK will largely stick to EU rules.

The really big changes will come when that transition ends. But the EU really is now a club of 27 members and not 28.

In other words the UK stays for now in the EU's customs union and single market. That means the same trade rules and free movement of goods and services. Freedom of movement for people stays the same and the EU's top court still has jurisdiction.

But there will be no more British voices in the European Parliament and no British ministers at EU meetings where big decisions are made.

Instead, the UK will try to agree a different economic partnership with the EU and forge new ones beyond.

What does it mean for me?

If you're British you are no longer an EU citizen. But for now you can still travel around the EU as freely as before.

The same goes if you're an EU citizen in the UK.

But after the transition period, which the UK vows will end on 31 December 2020, immigration rules will change for UK and EU citizens.

The 3.5 million EU nationals in the UK have until June 2021 to apply to an EU Settlement Scheme, but if there's no deal on future ties the deadline is the end of this year.

The 1.3 million UK citizens in the EU may need to apply for residence status.

After transition, the UK is planning a points-based immigration system, which will affect anyone, whether from the EU or not.

UK citizens will be able to visit the EU for up to 90 days at a time, but they will need a visa waiver, which will cost €7 (£6.30).

What happens now?

The UK and EU will use the next 11 months to negotiate a new relationship. Few on the EU side believe that is long enough, including EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but Boris Johnson has vowed to do so.

They want a free trade agreement that sets out the terms of trade, employment standards and environmental rules and other issues between the UK and the EU.

New arrangements on security, travel and immigration will need to be agreed too.

Trade deals usually take years, so if the two sides get to the end of 2020 without an agreement, brace yourselves for a possible "no-deal Brexit". If that happens, the UK could face higher food prices and disruption to medicines and other goods. It would trade with the EU on terms set out by the World Trade Organization, and that means tariffs.

What is the Withdrawal Agreement?

The main points are:
  • outlining how the UK will pay the EU for the £39bn "divorce bill"
  • scrapping the law that took the UK into the EU, but reinstating it just for the transition period
  • proposing a plan to ensure frictionless trade between EU member Ireland and neighbouring Northern Ireland which is part of the UK
  • guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, with an oversight body to monitor their treatment
  • Under the UK's legislation on the Withdrawal Agreement, extending the 11-month transition is prohibited.
Will the UK's exit make much difference?

The UK was among the big players in the EU, and one of the big contributors after Germany and France. It paid an average net contribution of £7.8bn (€9.3bn; $10.2bn) a year into EU. So when it stops paying in at the end of 2020, there will be a sizeable gap in EU finances.

The UK's strong contribution to EU defence and foreign policy has been much welcomed by the other states and will certainly be missed.

No other EU countries are currently planning their own version of Brexit. In fact several states are trying to join.

For the EU and UK, the next 11 months are pivotal, but relations will never be quite the same. "Whatever agreement we reach on our future relationship, Brexit will always be a matter of damage limitation," the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said this week.
Look at the date of President Trump's tweet below. 👇
He tweeted this BEFORE the 2016 Presidential election.
(emphasis mine)

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 2:14 PM

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