Since the referendum in June 2016, Brexit has been a continuing saga – a never ending or rather a never beginning story. Now, finally here it is, but it is far from being over yet: it is just the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end, depending on how we look at it.

What happens at midnight on Friday January 31? Not a lot.

What happens today when Britain officially leaves the European Union? Except for some parties organised by Brexit supporters, most people in the UK and Europe will see no difference at all.

But for political leaders February 1 starts the countdown clock on the tangible changes that Brexit will bring: new arrangements for Britain’s trade, customs, travel and regulation with the EU and the rest of the world.

Until then, an 11-month transition period ensures that everyday friction points and the biggest challenges of the Brexit project — cross-border travel, personal rights and immigration — remain unchanged until at least December 31.

“Virtually nothing will change for businesses or for the public,” the Dutch government says on its Brexit-readiness website.

What does change on January 31?

There’s no going back. From the early hours of Saturday, Britain cannot revoke Article 50 and it will not be a part of the EU unless it applies to join.

The Withdrawal Agreement, negotiated by Theresa May and renegotiated by Boris Johnson, becomes a binding treaty between the EU and Britain, enforceable with penalties.

Britain is no longer part of EU decision-making structures; ministers, including Prime Minister Johnson, will not attend EU summits unless invited, Britain’s 73 MEPs will no longer sit in the European Parliament, and its finance ministry must settle its ‘divorce bill’.

The parliamentary change could prove to be a source of mutual relief for officials in Brussels and Strasbourg and Brexit MEPs such as Nigel Farage.

Planning will start for the future UK-Irish border in Northern Ireland — the infrastructure headache that caused so much political deadlock during 2018 and 2019.

Cross-border citizens and ‘settled status’

For three million EU citizens living in the UK and one million British citizens residing in the EU, a new deal protecting rights will come into force, replacing the rights guaranteed by EU membership.

The terms of the deal, and examples of how it will work in practice, are set out in the EU citizens’ rights and Brexit section of the European Commission website.

During the transition period until December 31, the deal allows UK citizens to remain where they live and to continue receiving health care and pensions overseas.

It also permanently grants residence rights to EU citizens living in the UK. “The Withdrawal Agreement will make it very clear that, once granted to individual citizens, it will not be possible to withdraw the UK settled status from individual EU citizens,” it explains. UK legislation enacting these rights will prevail over any other legislation in order to ensure these rights are kept.

What does not change on January 31?

Aside from the democratic and legal changes above, every other aspect of EU membership remains applicable to Britain during the transition period.

Until at least December 31, EU benefits and protections such as freedom of movement, mobile phone roaming price caps and use of the blue EU channels at border points remain in place.

There will be no changes at ferry ports such as Dover, or airports. Existing reciprocal healthcare benefits remain in place.

Until December 31, taking a holiday or doing business should remain exactly the same as now.

What happens after the transition period, on December 31, 2020?

The next chapter in the Brexit psychodrama will be attempts to reach deals on future relationships by the end of the 11-month transition period.

source: Euronews

Leave won by 52% to 48% with England and Wales voting strongly for Brexit, while London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backed staying in the EU.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed it as the UK’s “independence day” but the Remain camp called it a “catastrophe”.

The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 as the markets reacted to the results.

The referendum turnout was 71.8% – with more than 30 million people voting – the highest turnout at a UK election since 1992.

Wales and the majority of England outside London voted in large numbers for Brexit.

Labour’s Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Bank of England may have to intervene to shore up the pound, which lost 3% within moments of the first result showing a strong result for Leave in Sunderland and fell as much as 6.5% against the euro.

‘Independence day’

UKIP leader Nigel Farage – who has campaigned for the past 20 years for Britain to leave the EU – told cheering supporters “this will be a victory for ordinary people, for decent people”.

Mr Farage – who predicted a Remain win at the start of the night afterpolls suggested that would happen – said Thursday 23 June would “go down in history as our independence day”.

He called on Prime Minister David Cameron, who called the referendum but campaigned passionately for a Remain vote, to quit “immediately”.

But pro-Leave Conservatives including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have signed a letter to Mr Cameron urging him to stay on whatever the result.

Labour former Europe Minister Keith Vaz told the BBC the British people had voted with their “emotions” and rejected the advice of experts who had warned about the economic impact of leaving the EU.

He said the EU should call an emergency summit to deal with the aftermath of the vote, which he described as “catastrophic for our country, for the rest of Europe and for the rest of the world”.

Germany’s foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier described the referendum result as “a sad day for Europe and Great Britain”.

But Leave supporting Tory MP Liam Fox said voters had shown great “courage” by deciding to “change the course of history” for the UK and, he hoped, the rest of Europe.

And he called for a “period of calm, a period of reflection, to let it all sink in and to work through what the actual technicalities are,” insisting that Mr Cameron must stay on as PM.

Exit process

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the EU vote “makes clear that the people of Scotland see their future as part of the European Union” after all 32 local authority areas returned majorities for Remain.

London has voted to stay in the EU by around 60% to 40%.

However, no other region of England has voted in favour of remaining.

The referendum has underlined the social and cultural gap between London and provincial England.

Remain’s defeat seems to have been primarily the product of the decisions made by voters living north of the M4.

Throughout the Midlands and the North of England the level of support for Remain was well below what was required for it to win at least 50% of the vote across the UK as a whole.

Britain would be the first country to leave the EU since its formation – but a leave vote will not immediately mean Britain ceases to be a member of the 28-nation bloc.

That process could take a minimum of two years, with Leave campaigners suggesting during the referendum campaign that it should not be completed until 2020 – the date of the next scheduled general election.

The prime minister will have to decide when to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would give the UK two years to negotiate its withdrawal.

Once Article 50 has been triggered a country cannot rejoin without the consent of all member states.

Mr Cameron has previously said he would trigger Article 50 as soon as possible after a leave vote but Boris Johnson and Michael Gove who led the campaign to get Britain out of the EU have said he should not rush into it.

But they also said they want to make immediate changes before the UK actually leaves the EU, such as curbing the power of EU judges and limiting the free movement of workers, potentially in breach the UK’s treaty obligations.

The government will also have to negotiate its future trading relationship with the EU and fix trade deals with non-EU countries.

In Whitehall and Westminster, there will now begin the massive task of unstitching the UK from more than 40 years of EU law, deciding which directives and regulations to keep, amend or ditch.

The Leave campaign argued during a bitter four-month referendum campaign that the only way Britain could “take back control” of its own affairs would be to leave the EU.

Leave dismissed warnings from economists and international bodies about the economic impact of Brexit as “scaremongering” by a self-serving elite.

And the latest news: Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

Mr Cameron made the announcement in a statement outside Downing Street after the final result was announced.

He said he would attempt to “steady the ship” over the coming weeks and months.

source: BBC

A day before deeply divided European Union ministers tackle the migrant crisis, the U.N. refugee agency also called on every member state to take in a share of asylum-seekers under a Brussels plan which some countries are fiercely resisting.

Berlin announced that the temporary measure would be taken first on the southern frontier with Austria, where migrant arrivals have soared since Chancellor Angela Merkel effectively opened German borders to refugees a week ago.

“The aim of these measures is to limit the current inflows to Germany and to return to orderly procedures when people enter the country,” said German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

Open borders among the European countries which signed the Schengen Treaty are a crucial part of the EU project, but controls can be re-introduced, provided they are only temporary.

“The free movement of people under Schengen is a unique symbol of European integration,” the EU’s executive Commission said in a statement. “However, the other side of the coin is a better joint management of our external borders and more solidarity in coping with the refugee crisis.”

At an emergency meeting on Monday, interior ministers from the EU’s 28 member states will discuss Commission proposals to redistribute about 160,000 asylum seekers across the bloc.

Amid the political bickering among European governments, the crisis claimed yet more lives. On Sunday 34 refugees, almost half of them babies and children, drowned off a Greek island when their boat sank, the coast guard said.

source: Reuters

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Complete the sentences with the following expressions from the article.

1. The CEO was not worried of the ……. of funds.

2. After ……. for a while they managed to decide which movie to watch.

3. The …….. gave a serious statement yesterday.

4. An …….. is someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated.

5. A ……. of his decision to sell his flat was his desire to move to the suburbs. 

6. The company forbade its employees to use outside email addresses for a while as a …………

key: 1-inflow, 2-bickering, 3-interior minister, 4-asylum seeker, 5-crucial part, 6-temporary measure