Great Britain officially leaves the EU

(Patria) - The United Kingdom at midnight, or 11 PM local time on Friday, left the European Union with celebrations from Brexit supporters.

The United Kingdom thus became the first member in the history of the European Union to leave that community, which now has 27 members.

The European Union has never lost a member before, but has exclusively expanded.

Citizens of Great Britain decided to leave the European Union in a referendum held on June 23, 2016, by a majority of 51.9 percent of the votes. The then British Prime Minister formally initiated the process of leaving the EU in March 2017 under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, after which complex negotiations began, which were supposed to end with a "divorce" on March 29, 2019.

The first version of the withdrawal agreement, concluded by Brussels with the then British Prime Minister Theresa May, was rejected three times in the British Parliament, which is why the Brexit date was postponed several times.

Her successor Boris Johnson reached a new agreement with Brussels in mid-October 2019.

After a new postponement of the exit date to January 31, 2020, he won a convincing majority in parliament in the early elections in December, which finally enabled the ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Johnson and the leaders of the European Union signed the agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on January 24, and the European Parliament confirmed it on January 29.

The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community in 1973, from which today's European Union emerged, and as early as 1975, a referendum on membership in the community was held in that country, where, unlike the last one, two-thirds of Britons voted to remain in the EEC.