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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 FEBRUARY 2020
EYEWITNESS
THIERRY ROGE
Many tears,
and some cheers
British MEPs make their own
final exit from the European
Parliament as the United
Kingdom formally withdraws
from the European Union.
Emotions run high as British
Labour Party MEP Neena
Gill (left) is consoled by a
colleague. In celebratory
mood however are Brexit Party
members like Lance Forman,
John Longworth and Lucy
Elizabeth Harris.
The withdrawal agreement
passed with 621 votes, with 49
against and 13 abstentions in
the final act of the ratification
process three and a half years
after the Brexit referendum.
After the vote, MEPs stood up
and sang "Auld Lang Syne"
a traditional British farewell
song, with some joining hands,
others holding up an EU-UK
football scarf with "Always
United" written on it.
The British MEPs "brought
charm, wit, intelligence,
sometimes also stubbornness
in this house," the parliament's
Brexit point man, MEP Guy
Verhofstadt said before the
vote. "In the name of all of us I
can only say, we will miss you",
he added.
He hailed Britain's central role
in Europe saying the British
"twice liberated us, gave its
blood to liberate Europe".
Brexit party MEP Nigel Farage,
who has campaigned for two
decades to take the UK out of
the EU, said that the day marks
an end to a "47-year political
experiment that the British
have never been very happy
with".
"Once we've left we are never
coming back and the rest
frankly is detail. We're going,
we will be gone," he said
waving a British flag along with
his over two dozen Brexit party
MEPs.
