LONDON (AP) – On Friday, a steady stream of trucks left ferries and trains on both sides of the English Channel, a quiet New Year’s Eve after a seismic change overnight in relations between the European Union and Great Britain.
The busy freight route between the south-east of England and the north-west of France is on the front line of change now that the UK has completely abandoned the economic embrace of the 27-nation bloc, the final stage of Brexit.
“For most trucks they won’t even notice the difference,” said John Keefe, a spokesman for Eurotunnel, which transports vehicles under the Canal. “There was always the risk that if this happened at a very busy time, we might run into some difficulties, but spend the night on holidays and long weekends.”
Britain left the European bloc’s only single market for people, goods and services on Thursday at 11pm London time, midnight in Brussels, in the country’s biggest economic change since World War II. . A new trade deal between the UK and the EU will lead to new restrictions and bureaucracy, but for British Brexit supporters it means regaining EU national independence and its network of rules.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose support for Brexit helped push the country out of the EU, called it “an incredible moment for that country.”
“We have our freedom in our hands and it’s up to us to make the most of it,” he said in a New Year’s video message.
The historic moment passed quietly, with UK closure measures against the coronavirus reducing mass gatherings to celebrate or mourn. Brexit, which had dominated public debate in Britain for years, was even pushed on some newspaper covers by news of the huge vaccination effort against COVID-19.
On the poor streets of London, which voted firmly to stay in the EU in Britain’s 2016 accession referendum, there was little enthusiasm for Brexit.
“I think it’s a disaster, among many disasters this year,” said Matt Steel, a doctor. “It simply came to our notice then. Honestly, I don’t see any positive aspects in it “.
The rupture comes eleven months after a political Brexit that left both sides in limbo of a “transition period” in which EU rights and rules continued to apply in Britain.
The trade deal closed on Christmas night after months of tense negotiations guarantees that both parties can continue to buy and sell goods without tariffs or quotas. But companies face new costs and paperwork, including customs declarations and border controls.
The port of Dover on the English Channel and the Eurotunnel prepared delays as new measures were introduced.
The vital supply route was twisted for days after France closed the border with UK truckers for 48 hours last week in response to a variant of the rapid spread of the virus identified in England.
The pandemic and a holiday weekend meant multi-channel traffic was sluggish on Friday. Britain has also delayed the imposition of full customs controls for several months so that companies can adapt.
The British government insisted that “the border systems and infrastructure we need are in place and we are ready for the new beginning of the UK”.
There were also new controls on the other side of the Irish Sea. A dozen trucks left the first ferry that arrived in Dublin port from Wales before dawn, clearing new customs inspections without delay.
“We have avoided the kind of dramatic rupture of a Brexit without a trade agreement, but that does not mean that things are not changing very fundamentally, because yes,” said Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.
“We will now see the € 80 billion ($ 97 billion) of trade across the Irish Sea, between Britain and Ireland, disrupted by many more controls and declarations, bureaucracy and paperwork, costs and delays.”
Hundreds of millions of individuals in Britain and the blog are also facing changes in their daily lives, with new rules on work visas, travel insurance and pet paperwork.
And months and years of discussion and discussion remain above all else, from fair competition to fish quotas, as Britain and the EU establish themselves in their new relationship as friends, neighbors and rivals.
Brexit could also have important constitutional repercussions for the UK. Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member Ireland, remains more closely linked to the bloc’s economy under the terms of the divorce. Thus, while goods will continue to move freely across the Irish land border, there will be new procedures for trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. neighbor.
In Scotland, which voted firmly in 2016 to stay, Brexit has strengthened its support for the separation of the United Kingdom The country’s pro-independence prime minister, Nicola Sturgeon, tweeted: “Scotland will return to Europe soon. Keep the light on “.
European leaders, whose patience with Britain has been exhausted during the years of the Brexit melodrama, expressed their regret at leaving the UK and their anger at the forces that drove it.
“The UK remains our neighbor, but also our friend and ally,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in his New Year’s speech to the nation. “This option to leave Europe, this Brexit, was the child of a European unrest, of many lies and false promises.”
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Jo Kearney in Folkestone, England, contributed to this story.
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