BREXIT BEGINS: BRITAIN GIVES FORMAL DIVORCE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

LONDON: A little over nine months after British voters chose to withdraw from the European Union, Britain took a decisive — and likely irreversible — step on Wednesday toward leaving a partnership that has bound the country to the continent for nearly half a century.

With the simple handoff of a letter in Brussels in the early afternoon, the British government became the first country to ever trigger Article 50 — the mechanism by which nations can exit the European Union.

The move instantly plunged both Britain and the 27 other EU nations into two years of what will almost certainly be messy and acrimonious negotiations over the terms of divorce.

The talks will encompass a dizzying array of subjects, including trade terms, immigration rules, financial regulations and, of course, money. Britain joined the group that became the European Union in 1973, so decades of ties, pacts and arrangements are part of the complicated unraveling. For both sides, the stakes are enormous. Britain could be forced to reorient its economy — the world’s fifth largest — if it loses favorable terms with its biggest trade partner. It also may not survive the departure in one piece, with Scotland threatening to bolt.

The European Union, which for decades has only expanded its integrative reach across a continent long divided, faces perhaps an even greater existential threat. If Britain is allowed to get a good deal, other countries that are already contemplating their own departures could speed toward the exits.

The British public stunned the world last June when it opted to leave, voting 52 percent to 48 percent in a referendum. Polls show that voters who opted for “leave” were driven by concerns that immigration was out of control under the EU’S free-movement laws, and that Britain needed to leave the bloc to restore its sovereignty. Advocates for “remain” had forecast grievous economic harm and a weaker British role in global affairs.

The outcome was only advisory, however, and for months afterward advocates for “remain” clung to the hope that Britain’s government might somehow pull back from an actual withdrawal.

Wednesday’s move all but dashes that possibility. Although some legal experts believe that an Article 50 declaration is reversible, British and EU officials have both said they believe it is not.

The formal declaration came in the form of a letter from Prime Minister Theresa May to European Council President Donald Tusk. It was hand-delivered by Britain’s EU ambassador, Tim Barrow.

The move is a victory for May, who stepped into the vacuum left last summer when her predecessor, David Cameron, abruptly resigned after the public disregarded his call for the country to stay in the E.U.

Although May was herself quietly in favor of ‘remain’ during the campaign, she pivoted quickly in the aftermath of the vote and adamantly maintained that she would make good on the public will. “Brexit means Brexit,” she repeatedly declared.

It was not until January, however, that May gave true shape to what Brexit might mean. In a speech at London’s Lancaster House — the opulent, park-side mansion that doubles as Buckingham Palace in the Netflix drama The Crown — May made the case for a clean break from the European Union.

The country, she said, would not try to remain a full member of either Europe’s common market or its customs union. Instead, she said, the country would prioritize regaining control over immigration and taking itself out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.