LONDON (AP) – A steady stream of trucks rolled off ferries and trains flanking the English Channel on Friday, a quiet New Year’s Day following a seismic overnight shift in relations between the European Union and Britain.
The busy freight route between South East England and North West France is on the front line of change as the UK has completely left the economic embrace of the 27-country bloc, the final stage of Brexit.
“They don’t even notice the difference for most trucks,” said John Keefe, spokesman for Eurotunnel, which transports vehicles under the Channel. “There was always a risk that if this happened at a busy time we could get in trouble, but it happens at night on a holiday and a long weekend.”
Britain left the vast single market for people, goods and services of the European bloc on Thursday at 11pm London time, midnight in Brussels, in the biggest economic change the country has seen since World War II. A new trade deal between the UK and the EU will bring new restrictions and red tape, but for UK Brexit supporters it means regaining the EU’s national independence and its web of rules.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose support for Brexit helped push the country out of the EU, called it “a great moment for this 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.
The historic moment passed quietly, with UK lockdown measures against the coronavirus curtailing massive gatherings to celebrate or mourn. Brexit, which had dominated public debate in Britain for years, was even pushed off the front pages of some newspapers by news of the massive vaccination effort against COVID-19.
In the understated streets of London – which voted strongly to stay in the EU in the 2016 UK membership referendum – there was little enthusiasm for Brexit.
“I think it’s a disaster, one of many disasters this year,” said Matt Steel, a physician. “It’s a crappy deal. I don’t really see any positive points in it, to be honest. “
The break comes 11 months after a political Brexit that left the two sides in the dark of a ‘transition period’ during which EU rights and rules continued to apply to Britain.
The trade deal struck on Christmas Eve after months of tense negotiations ensures that the two sides can continue to buy and sell goods without tariffs or quotas. But businesses face new costs and paperwork, including customs declarations and border controls.
The English Channel Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel braced themselves for delays when the new measures were introduced.
The vital supply route was disrupted for days after France closed the border to British truck drivers for 48 hours last week in response to a rapidly spreading variant of the virus identified in England.
The pandemic and a holiday weekend meant that traffic across the Channel was light on Friday. Britain has also delayed the imposition of full customs controls for several months to allow businesses to adapt.
The UK government insisted that “the border systems and infrastructure we need are in place and that we are ready for the UK’s new start”.
There were also new controls across the Irish Sea. A dozen trucks rolled off the first ferry to arrive at Dublin Port from Wales before sunrise, allowing the new customs inspections to be cleared without delay.
“We’ve avoided the kind of dramatic disruption of a no-trade deal Brexit, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t fundamentally changing, because they are,” Irish Foreign Secretary Simon Coveney said.
“We will now see the $ 80 billion ($ 97 billion) trade across the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland being disrupted by a whole lot more checks and declarations, and bureaucracy and paperwork, and costs and delays.”
Hundreds of millions of people in Britain and the bloc 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 lie ahead, from fair competition to fishing quotas, as Britain and the EU settle into their new relationship as friends, neighbors and rivals.
Brexit could also have major constitutional consequences for the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member Ireland, remains more closely tied to the bloc’s economy under the divorce terms. So while goods will continue to flow freely across Ireland’s land border, there will be new procedures for trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. In the long run, Northern Ireland could move away from the rest of the UK and into the south of it. neighbour.
In Scotland, which voted strongly to stay in 2016, Brexit has bolstered support for secession from the UK. The country’s pro-independence Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Scotland is coming back soon, Europe. Keep the light on. “
European leaders, whose patience with Britain has come short during years of Brexit melodrama, expressed regret at the UK’s departure and 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 address to the country. “This choice to leave Europe, this Brexit, was the child of European malaise and many lies and false promises.”
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Jo Kearney in Folkestone, England, contributed to this story.
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