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He UK has definitively severed ties with the European Union (EU), thus putting an end to almost half a century of participation in the European bloc.
At 11:00 p.m. London (8:00 p.m. in Chile) and midnight in Brussels, the clock marked the historic moment of the United Kingdom’s disconnection from its community neighbors, more than four years after the British voted – on 23 June 2016- in favor of Brexit.
The United Kingdom had already officially left the club of 27 on January 31, but this Friday, with the entry of 2021, it has left the common market and the customs union, to which it was still linked during the transition period that he has just finished.
From now on, the United Kingdom, as the Government has insisted, becomes a country with control of its waters, freedom to negotiate trade agreements with countries outside the community bloc, subject only to its own laws and under the jurisdiction of its courts.
In the 2016 plebiscite, 51.9% voted in favor of Brexit and 48.1% against, with a turnout of 72.2%, much higher than in the British general elections.
Bilateral agreement
Since June 23, 2016, the UK and the EU have embarked on a long and winding path, as described by the President of the European Commission (EU), Ursula van der Leyen, when paraphrasing a Beatles song, in order to establish the future commercial and cooperative relationship between both parties.
That path culminated on the 24th with a broad free trade agreement, which has been ratified in the United Kingdom, after the two chambers of the British Parliament -Commons and Lords- approved it on the 30th in an extraordinary session.
The bill that was processed urgently transposes into British legislation the commitments acquired with the EU on the relationship between both parties.
The Christmas Eve pact sealed in Brussels, after nine months of negotiations, ensures that the United Kingdom can “trade and cooperate” with the 27 members of the EU “in the closest terms of friendship and goodwill”.
A break in the European project
Tonight with this unprecedented break in the European project started after World War II, the UK is leaving behind an ambivalent and stormy relationship with the EU.
The debate about the good and the bad of being in the EU has always been present among politicians of different backgrounds, but it has been Boris Johnson’s conservatives who have had more internal problems in recent decades due to strong Euroscepticism.
Paradoxically, it was the “tories” who brought the United Kingdom into the then European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 under Edward Heath, Prime Minister between 1970 and 1974.
Heath succeeded after two unsuccessful attempts by the United Kingdom, in 1963 and 1967, over the French veto due to doubts by then-President Charles de Gaulle about the British commitment to the European project.
Since that entry seen as a symbol of progress, the British link with Europe had difficult moments for different prime ministers. David cameron resigned after the 2016 referendum and Teresa May she was forced to resign due to the impossibility of gathering sufficient support in Parliament to carry out an agreement on the British withdrawal from the European bloc.
The disconnect, however, is not a surprise. The United Kingdom was always reluctant to further European integration, especially political and monetary, to the point that it managed to keep its pound sterling and stay out of the community currency.
For Boris Johnson, the architect of the campaign in favor of Brexit in the 2016 referendum, the exit of his country from the EU does not imply the abandonment of ties with Europe.
“Culturally, emotionally, historically, strategically and geographically, this country will remain united with Europe,” Johnson said after sealing the deal with the EU last Christmas Eve. EFE
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