UK leaves EU, leaps into the unknown

Moment of real national renewal and change: Johnson

LONDON, Feb 1, (AP): So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu.

With little fanfare, Britain left the European Union on Friday after 47 years of membership, taking a leap into the unknown in a historic blow to the bloc.

The UK’s departure became official at 11 p.m. (2300GMT), midnight in Brussels, where the EU is headquartered. Thousands of enthusiastic Brexit supporters gathered outside Britain’s Parliament to welcome the moment they’d longed for since Britain’s 52%48% vote in June 2016 to walk away from the club it had joined in 1973. The flag-waving crowd erupted in cheers as Big Ben bonged 11 times – on a recording. Parliament’s real bell has been silenced for repairs.

In a message from nearby 10 Downing St., Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Britain’s departure “a moment of real national renewal and change.”

But many Britons mourned the loss of their EU identity, and some marked the passing with tearful vigils. There was also sadness in Brussels as British flags were quietly removed from the bloc’s many buildings.

Whether Brexit makes Britain a proud nation that has reclaimed its sovereignty, or a diminished presence in Europe and the world, will be debated for years to come.

While Britain’s exit is a historic moment, it only marks the end of the first stage of the Brexit saga. When Britons wake up on Saturday, they will notice very little change. The UK and the EU have given themselves an 11-month “transition period” – in which the UK will continue to follow the bloc’s rules – to strike new agreements on trade, security and a host of other areas.

The now 27-member EU will have to bounce back from one of its biggest setbacks in its 62-year history to confront an ever more complicated world as its former member becomes a competitor, just across the English Channel.

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

Mosbacher, during a ceremony at an air force academy in the central town of Deblin.

Duda said it was among the biggest deals in the history of Poland’s armed forces and a sign of the strength of relations with the US.

The US Department of State commended Poland’s commitment to modernizing its military, saying the jet “will improve Poland’s day that must also lead us to do things differently.”

He insisted that European citizens need a united Europe “more than ever,” to defend their interests in the face of China and the United States, to cope with climate change and migration and technological upheaval.

In the many EU buildings of Brussels on Friday, British flags were quietly lowered, folded and taken away. This is the first time a country has left the EU, and many in the bloc rued the day. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lamented that “as the sun rises tomorrow, a new chapter for our union of 27 will start.”

But she warned Brexit day would mark a major loss for the UK and said the island nation was heading for a lonelier existence.

“Strength does not lie in splendid isolation, but in our unique union,” she said.

Johnson insisted post-Brexit Britain would be “simultaneously a great European power and truly global in our range and ambitions.”

Cooperation

“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 address to the country broadcast an hour before Britain’s exit.

In a break with usual practice, independent media outlets were not allowed to film Johnson’s speech, which the government recorded Thursday at 10 Downing St.

Johnson won an election victory in December with a dual promise to “get Brexit done” and deliver improved jobs, infrastructure and services for Britain’s most deprived areas, where support for leaving the EU is strongest. On Friday, he symbolically held a Cabinet meeting in the pro-Brexit town of Sunderland in northeast England, rather than in London.

Johnson is a Brexit enthusiast, but he knows many Britons aren’t, and his Conservative government sought to mark the moment with quiet dignity. Red, white and blue lights illuminated government buildings and a countdown clock projected onto the prime

ability to provide collective and self-defense.”

Poland expects to take delivery of the F-35 A Lightning II aircraft between 2024 and 2030. It will be the 10th NATO member nation to fly F-35 fighters.

US, Israeli and British air forces have already used the aircraft in combat.

Poland’s contract includes training, minister’s Downing Street residence.

There was no such restraint in nearby Parliament Square, where archBrexiteer Nigel Farage gathered a crowd of several thousand, who belted out the patriotic song “Land of Hope and Glory” as they waited for the moment that even Farage sometimes doubted would ever come.

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

“The war is over,” said Farage, who often describes Britain’s relationship with Europe in martial terms. “We have won.”

Londoner Donna Jones said she had come to “be part of history.”

“It doesn’t mean we’re anti-Europe, it just means we want to be self-sufficient in a certain way,” she said.

But Britons who cherished their membership in the bloc – and the freedom it bought to live anywhere across of 28 countries – were mourning.

“Many of us want to just mark our sadness in public,” said Ann Jones, who joined dozens of other remainers on a march to the EU’s mission in London.

“And we don’t want trouble, we just want to say, well you know, we didn’t want this.”

Britain’s journey to Brexit has been long, rocky – and far from over.

The UK was never a wholehearted EU member, but actually leaving the bloc was long considered a fringe idea. It gradually gained strength within the Conservative Party, which has a wing of fierce “euroskeptics” – opponents of EU membership. Former Prime Minister David Cameron eventually agreed to hold a referendum, saying he wanted to settle the issue once and for all.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Since the 2016 vote, the UK has held fractious negotiations with the EU that finally, late last year, secured a deal on divorce terms. But Britain is leaving the bloc arguably as divided as it was on referendum day.

By and large, Britain’s big cities voted to stay in the EU, while small towns voted to leave.

England and Wales backed Brexit, while Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to remain.

logistics and simulators. The jets will replace some of the Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter aircraft that Poland’s air force still uses.

Opposition politicians criticize the contract as too costly and have argued the money could have been used to modernize Poland’s air force in other ways. (AP)

Greece boosts border patrols:

Greece is stepping up security on its porous land border with Turkey, used by thousands of migrants to clandestinely enter Europe, with extra guards supported by a network of powerful surveillance cameras, officials said Friday.

The country is struggling with a surge of immigration through Turkey, and is now the main point of entry to Europe.

Greek island migrant camps, which receive most new arrivals, are dysfunctional and severely overcrowded, while this week details emerged of a plan to set up a floating barrier to block migrant boats in the Aegean Sea.

On the northeastern land border with Turkey, that mostly follows the Evros River, army and police have launched joint patrols while police are hiring 400 more border guards to deploy locally, officials said.

“We have already started the joint patrols,” said Ilias Akidis, police union head in the nearby town of Orestiada. “And installation of the 11 surveillance cameras along the river (will soon be) implemented.”

Greece has already erected a 10-kilometer (six-mile) fence along part of the border where the river veers away, leaving dry land that migrants could easily walk across. (AP)