As the UK sets out alone, we look back at some highs and lows of its relationship with Europe
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Union jack removed from EU parliament building – video
The union flag has been removed from the esplanade outside the European parliament building, where the flags of all member states are displayed. It was replaced by the EU flag featuring a circle of 12 yellow stars. Britain will become the first country to leave the European Union at 11pm on Friday, after 47 years as a member
Continue reading...UK goods to face extra checks at borders under PM’s Brexit plans
Non-alignment with EU will mean ‘extra processes’ and not frictionless trade
British firms will face extra paperwork and checks on goods at cross-channel borders under Boris Johnson’s proposals for post-Brexit trade.
The prime minister is set to tell the EU that he is willing to accept additional checks and friction at border crossings so he can prioritise promises made on sovereignty after Britain leaves the EU.
Continue reading...Pets, pensions and Irish passports: readers’ questions about post-Brexit rights
Which passport should my children use? Will I pay home or EU student fees? Your questions answered
There is continuing confusion about citizens’ rights after Brexit. We asked you about your concerns, and many wrote in with questions about pension and healthcare rights.
You raised other issues too: can I still sail around Europe? Will I pay home fees if I start university in the Netherlands this year? What will happen about my pet’s passport? There is much unfinished Brexit business, as you will see from our answers below, composed with the help of experts and government departments.
Continue reading...Britons in EU remain fearful of post-Brexit healthcare and pension provisions
Guardian callout suggests many are worried about key issues settled with withdrawal agreement
British citizens living in the EU remain confused and worried about their post-Brexit healthcare and pension provision, despite the fact that both issues were settled satisfactorily in the withdrawal agreement, a Guardian callout suggests.
More than 100 of over 600 British nationals on the continent, who responded to the callout, cited fears of shrinking pensions and losing the right to medical treatment.
Continue reading...MEPs sing Auld Lang Syne after approving Brexit deal – video
MEPs broke into song after voting to approve the withdrawal agreement for Britain’s exit from the EU
Continue reading...Brexit: MEPs ratify UK withdrawal agreement
Politicians join in rendition of Auld Lang Syne after vote confirming UK departure from EU on Friday
Britain’s departure from the EU on 31 January was set in stone in a historic moment for the nation as MEPs in Brussels ratified the withdrawal agreement before breaking out in a rendition of Auld Lang Syne.
As the president of the European parliament, David Sassoli, announced the result of the vote, with 621 in favour to 38 against with 13 abstentions, MEPs stood almost as one to sing the Scottish song.
Continue reading...The Britons getting out before Brexit ‘drawbridge’ goes up
UK nationals rush to settle in Spain before they lose their rights as EU citizens on 31 December
Campaigners for the rights of British nationals in Spain have reported a rise in the number of inquiries from people rushing through plans to establish residency in the country before the Brexit “drawbridge goes up”.
Sue Wilson, the founder of campaign group Bremain in Spain, says now that Brexit is “concrete and is happening” they are seeing evidence of Britons “expediting their plans” for retirement or a career move to Spain.
Continue reading...Varadkar: EU will have upper hand in Brexit trade talks – video
Leo Varadkar says the EU has a 'stronger team' than the UK in Brexit trade talks, comparing the size of their respective populations and markets.
Speaking to the BBC before talks in Ireland with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, the Irish prime minister also warned Boris Johnson that divergence from Brussels standards would make an agreement more difficult in the time allowed.
- Brexit: EU will have upper hand in trade talks, says Varadkar
- Auf wiedersehen, arrivederci, adieu: UK MEPs face final week
Brexit: No 10 insists fishing waters will be under UK control after Varadkar remarks – live news
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
- Varadkar: EU will have upper hand in trade talks
- Immigration: fast-track ‘global talent visa’ to be launched days after Brexit
- Auf Wiedersehen, adieu: UK MEPs face final week
Here is the Times’s Steven Swinford on the significant of the PMOS’s comments on fishing.
No 10 spokesman suggests access to Britain’s waters for EU fishing boats *will* be the subject of negotiations over future trade deal
‘We are taking back control of our waters
‘It will be for the UK to determine for the best interests of the UK who fishes in those waters’
The PMOS is not talking about some of the post-Brexit Whitehall arrangements.
He says there will be 40 officials working in government taskforce on the EU future partnership.
Continue reading...Philip Pullman calls for boycott of Brexit 50p coin over ‘missing’ Oxford comma
Critics fume over the omission of Oxford comma from phrase ‘Peace, prosperity and friendship’ as new coin enters circulation
It is a debate that has torn the nation in two, ripped friends and family apart, and entrenched deep and uncrossable lines throughout the land. Should the Royal Mint have used an Oxford comma on its Brexit 50p piece?
Three million coins bearing the slogan “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations” are due to enter circulation from 31 January, with Sajid Javid, chancellor of the exchequer, expressing his hope that the commemorative coin will mark “the beginning of this new chapter” as the UK leaves the European Union.
Continue reading...Farewell, Europe: the long road to Brexit
The Observer’s political editor has reported on Britain’s place in the EU for more than 30 years. Here he charts the key moments in a stormy relationship and the missed chances to save it from destruction
Last week, with the end of the UK’s 47-year membership of the club of European nations just days away, I looked back at some newspaper cuttings from my time as a Brussels correspondent. A picture of worried-looking farmers eyeing up their cattle at a market in Banbury stared out alongside banner headlines. “British beef banned in Europe. Cattle prices fall. School meals hit. EU ‘rules’ broken.” Among the many crises in British relations with the EU down the years – from Margaret Thatcher’s bust-up over the European budget in the early 1980s to the UK’s exit from the ERM in 1992 – the beef war between London and Brussels ranks among the biggest.
It was 29 March, 1996, and the European commission had just announced a worldwide ban on the export of British beef. The EU’s executive opted for decisive action after the Tory government admitted there could be a link between “mad cow” disease and the mutant strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which could kill humans. I had been in Brussels less than three months. It was a huge story, and reading through articles I had written at the time, it felt like yesterday. But what was most striking, as my mind fixed again on events of 24 years ago, was how relevant that one prolonged and tortuous episode seemed today, in the context of Brexit.
Continue reading...Brexit celebrations ‘rub our noses in it’, says Heseltine
Commemorative coin, countdown and Downing Street light display to mark departure on Friday
The Tory peer and former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has accused Boris Johnson of trying to “rub the noses of Remainers in their defeat”, after the prime minister announced events to commemorate the UK’s departure from the EU this coming Friday at 11pm.
Downing Street said that 3m special 50p coins bearing the words “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations” will enter shops, banks and restaurants from Friday with a further 7m coming into circulation by the end of the year. Union Jack flags will also line Parliament Square and the Mall on Friday and the public will see government buildings in Whitehall lit up in red, white and blue.
Continue reading...Revealed: complex post-Brexit checks for Northern Irish traders
Transport and manufacturing heads criticise paperwork needed to trade with GB
The “straightforward” document that Northern Irish businesses will need to complete to send goods to Great Britain after Brexit is a complex form that includes 31 data elements, it can be revealed.
The Freight Transport Association has raised concerns that hauliers could be fined if they get elements of the “exit summary declaration” wrong, and is calling on the EU and the UK to remove it during their negotiations.
Continue reading...UK could tap into Africa’s $24bn market for off-grid solar power
Rapidly growing sector could prove lucrative as Britain seeks post-Brexit trade opportunities
UK investors could seize a $24bn investment opportunity by helping to connect millions of people without access to electricity to off-grid home solar power systems.
The market for pay-as-you-go home solar packages is expected to boom in Africa, where millions of homes are using mobile technology to rent low-cost solar panels.
Continue reading...Unsettled status: EU citizens want card to prove right to stay in UK
Poll finds 90% of EU citizens in UK fear discrimination without evidence of rights after Brexit
The government is facing fresh calls to issue EU citizens with a physical document to prove they have the right to stay in the country after Brexit.
A report found nine out of 10 EU citizens in the UK would prefer a card over the digital evidence they have now to demonstrate their rights in future to employers, banks or landlords.
Continue reading...Javid comments on non-alignment with EU prompt warnings of price rises
Chancellor’s remarks represent ‘death knell for frictionless trade’, experts warn
Businesses have predicted price rises after the UK chancellor, Sajid Javid, said there would be no alignment with EU regulations once Britain’s exit from the European Union was made official.
In what is being seen as an opening salvo in the next stage of negotiations, Javid said the Treasury would not lend support to manufacturers that favour EU rules as the sector had had three years to prepare for Britain’s transition.
Continue reading...EU nationals are fearful. And after Windrush, they should be | Gaby Hinsliff
For all the reassurances about their status, the risk of being kicked out still haunts those without a British passport
A few weeks ago, an old friend posted something on Facebook that stopped me in my tracks. He’s a GP, married to a teacher he met decades ago at university, with three children. They’re the sort of energetic, adventurous, public-spirited family who pitch in wherever help is needed and make me feel vaguely embarrassed about my own civic shortcomings. I have never known him be anything but laid-back, and although he’s originally Dutch, in theory he should have nothing to fear from Brexit: he has settled status, confirming the right to live and work here with his English wife and family after 31 January, just as before. But now he’s fearful. What if, the next time he needs to renew his passport for a family holiday, the computer says no? How can he be sure his life won’t unravel in some faceless official’s hands?
‘The despair is truly palpable now, and in some cases goes as far as suicidal thoughts'
Continue reading...900,000 EU citizens in UK yet to apply for settled status
Despite take-up by 2.7 million, alarm over numbers granted weaker pre-settled status
An estimated 900,000 EU citizens in the UK have yet to apply for settled status, which most will need to remain in the country long-term after Brexit.
The data comes a day after the European parliament raised concerns that EU citizens risked discrimination after Brexit in seeking housing and employment.
Continue reading...Britain’s EU citizens ‘at risk of discrimination’ after Brexit, say MEPs
European parliament says mixed messages have caused ‘unhelpful uncertainty’
The European parliament has said EU citizens living in the UK after it leaves the bloc risk discrimination in jobs and housing, because the government will not issue physical documents under the settled-status scheme.
In a resolution backed by a resounding majority of MEPs in Strasbourg, the parliament said the British government’s “conflicting announcements” about special status had caused “unhelpful uncertainty and anxiety” for EU nationals who had made the UK their home.
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