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Britain approaches a historic change.
At 11 p.m. on Friday — midnight in Brussels, and 6 p.m. in New York — Britain will officially depart from the European Union, 1,317 days after voting in favor of leaving the bloc in a referendum that plunged the country into a three-year-long debate over its future.
While this will be the official end of 47 years of Britain’s membership in what became the European Union, very little is set to change immediately. It’s the beginning of a transition period, scheduled to end on Dec. 31, during which London and Brussels must hash out the details of Britain’s future relationship with its European neighbors. Still, the moment carries enormous legal and symbolic weight.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cabinet began their day with a meeting in Sunderland, the city in northern England that was the first to announce it had voted in favor of leaving the European Union on the night of the 2016 referendum.
It was the first of a handful of celebratory, but noticeably muted, official events to mark the day, suggesting that a pro-Brexit government is seeking to avoid the appearance of gloating. In the referendum, 48 percent of voters wanted to remain part of the European Union, and later polls suggest that number may have grown since.
Flags will line Parliament Square and The Mall, the ceremonial avenue leading to Buckingham Palace, and government buildings will be lit up in the red, white and blue of the Union Jack.
A countdown clock will be projected onto the front of 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence, along with a commemorative light display to “symbolize the strength and unity” of the four nations of the United Kingdom, the government said.
In Brussels, the three presidents of the European Union institutions will give a joint statement Friday morning, expected to reflect a jointly published article in which they detail a hopeful future for the union.
The E.U. flag comes down.
At the close of the business day in Brussels, Britain lowered the blue, yellow-starred European Union flag at its Brussels diplomatic post. The post becomes the British Embassy to the European Union at the stroke of midnight in Brussels.
Britain’s own flag comes down at midnight at the European Council and Parliament buildings.
“Dawn of a new era”: Johnson’s planned speech on Britain’s next act.
In the years of debate over Britain’s exit from the European Union, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was never one for nuance, even declaring that he would “rather be dead in a ditch” than see Brexit delayed again.
But as the hour of reckoning approaches, Downing Street has been remarkably subdued, not wanting to rub salt in the still raw wounds of those who desperately wanted to remain — about half the country.
When he addresses the nation tonight at 10 p.m., Mr. Johnson will attempt to strike a hopeful and conciliatory note.
“Our job as the government, my job, is to bring this country together and take us forward,” he will say, according to excerpts released by his office. “This is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act.”
Of course, the next year of negotiations over Britain’s future trade relationship with the European Union will play a large role in determining what that new act might look like.
But that concern was for another day. Mr. Johnson, instead, will use his remarks to convince the public that Brexit is “not an end but a beginning.”
“This is the dawn of a new era in which we no longer accept that your life chances — your family’s life chances — should depend on which part of the country you grow up in,” he will tell the nation. “This is the moment when we begin to unite and level up.”
Friday’s front pages reveal a divided Britain.
The front pages of the country’s main newspapers offered several interpretations of Britain’s final day in the European Union.
Some celebrated the coming of a new dawn while others offered a bleak picture of the twilight of an era of cooperation.
“Yes, We Did It!” declared the tabloid Daily Express, while The Daily Mail, another conservative, pro-Brexit paper, lauded “A New Dawn for Britain,” with a photograph of the sunbathed white cliffs of Dover, 62 miles from the French coast.
The liberal and pro-European Guardian offered the headline “Small island,” with a miniature union flag planted in a crumbling sand castle on a beach, the same white cliffs visible in the distance. What comes next is uncertain, the paper wrote, calling Brexit the biggest gamble in a generation.
The I, another paper with liberal leanings, had “U.K.’s leap into the unknown” overlaid on a satellite view of Western Europe at night, a perspective that emphasized Britain’s physical closeness to its European Union neighbors.
The headline on the Edinburgh-based The Scotsman was “Farewell, not goodbye,” with the British, Scottish and European flags — a nod to reinvigorated calls for Scottish independence from Britain. Scots voted against independence in a 2014 referendum, but then voted strongly to remain in European Union two years later.
That divergence from England has helped fuel calls for a second referendum on Scottish independence, with the suggestion that an independent Scotland could then rejoin the European Union.
For those Britons already missing Europe, The Times of London promoted a travel supplement full of European escapes and the “Best places to stay in touch with the Continent.” And, finally, The Daily Star saw a reason to celebrate, but not the one other tabloids were highlighting.
“Tonight is a TRULY HISTORIC moment for our great nation,” blared the cover of what it called a souvenir edition. “That’s right, it’s the end of dry January.”
Britain embarks on its solo journey with a sluggish economy.
Last year, Britain’s economy grew at its weakest pace since 2010, hampered by weak business investment. And now the Bank of England has lowered its expectations for growth this year to 0.75 percent, from 1.25 percent.
At his final news conference on Thursday, Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, who has extended his tenure three times to accommodate Brexit, said that from an economic perspective, “the last decade ended with a whimper.”
Recently published figures have indicated an uptick in sentiment and activity since Britain’s December election produced a clear Conservative majority in Parliament, reducing uncertainty and clearing the way for a final decision on Brexit. As a result, the Bank of England decided it did not need to lower interest rates to bolster the economy. Still, Mr. Carney warned that a recovery was not guaranteed.
“To be clear, these are still early days, and it is less a case of ‘so far so good’ than ‘so far, good enough,’” he said. “Although early signs are encouraging, the recoveries in growth and inflation are also not yet assured.”
Christine Lagarde offers reassurances, even as the specter of recession looms.
Christine Lagarde, Europe’s top central banker, said she was sorry that Britain was leaving the European Union, but offered assurances that the split could take place without disrupting the financial system.
“It is with great regret that we see our British friends leave the European Union,” Ms. Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said in a statement. “We will work hard to ensure Brexit causes as little disruption as possible for the citizens, employers and financial markets in the euro area and the rest of the E.U.”
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England have already set up a system to swap pounds and euros to ensure that banks don’t run short of either currency. Bank regulators on both sides have agreed to continue sharing information. And the European Central Bank has already issued licenses for 25 banks relocating from Britain to the euro currency zone.
Britain was never a member of the eurozone. But as a member of the European Union it contributed about 58 million euros, or $64 million, to the European Central Bank’s capital. It will now get that money back.
But fears that Brexit could hurt the European economy may already be proving justified. The eurozone grew only 0.1 percent during the last three months of 2019 compared with the previous quarter, according to official statistics published on Friday.
That was a significant slowdown from previous quarters and meant that the 19 countries in the eurozone grew only 1.2 percent during last year, according to a preliminary estimate.
“The specter of recession is back,” Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said in a note to investors on Friday.
Eurostat, the official statistics agency, didn’t give a reason for the slowdown. But one factor was probably the uncertainty caused by Brexit, which has made businesses hesitant to hire or to invest in expansion. Trade between the European Union and Britain has also shrunk since the country voted to leave.
Brexit means one German town will need a new mayor.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany described Brexit as a “decisive turning point for us all,” in a video message released on Friday.
“Germany would like to remain a close partner and friend of Britain because we share common values,” she said. In the video, Ms. Merkel explains that the rights of British people living in the European Union had been ensured under the withdrawal agreement.
But for one German town, Britain’s departure meant a big change: losing their mayor of 12 years.
The mayor, Iain Macnab, is originally from Scotland but has lived in Brunsmark, a town of 161 people in northern Germany, since 1992. But he had to give up his office on Friday, as he will not be able to vote in municipal elections as he is no longer a European citizen.
According to local laws, Mr. Macnab cannot be elected to an office he is not allowed to vote for.
“It’s a bit sad,” Mr. Macnab said by telephone from the Town Hall on his last day in office. “It didn’t strike me until yesterday, when I had my last committee meeting.”
Britain’s former U.S. ambassador has fears about a Trump trade deal.
The former British ambassador to Washington fired a shot over the bow of the good ship Brexit on Friday, warning that President Trump would be likely to demand that the country’s revered National Health Service pay higher prices for American drugs in a potential post-Brexit trade deal.
Kim Darroch, who resigned from his post in July after critical comments he made about Mr. Trump were leaked, told The Guardian that the Trump administration would prioritize the demands of large American corporations and farmers who want more access to British markets.
“I know what the U.S. will be pitching for when they negotiate a free-trade deal with us,” Mr. Darroch said in the interview with The Guardian. “People talk about chlorinated chicken — it is a lot more than that.”
Currently, Britain’s National Health Service has a price cap on some pharmaceuticals, which pressures American drug firms to sell their products in Britain at a lower price.
“Do they want us to pay more for their pharmaceuticals? Do the pharmaceutical companies want to use this leverage? Of course, they do,” Mr. Darroch said.
Before the row, Mr. Darroch had driven attempts to expand trade relations with the United States.
Even Brexit’s commemorative coins are causing controversy.
To mark Britain’s exit from the European Union, three million commemorative 50-pence coins are entering circulation, bearing the message “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to become one of the first owners of the coin on Friday when Sajid Javid, the chancellor of the Exchequer, plans to hand one over. Seven million more will come into use later in the year.
But as with almost everything Brexit-related, the short history of the coin, which has a face value equivalent to about 65 cents, has already been fraught. Production began ahead of a previously planned departure on Oct. 31, but when Brexit was pushed back to January, over a million coins had to be melted down.
When re-dated coins were unveiled, some people called for a boycott, either to display opposition to Brexit or because they find the message on the coin grammatically offensive.
“The ‘Brexit’ 50p coin is missing an Oxford comma, and should be boycotted by all literate people,” the novelist Philip Pullman wrote on Twitter, arguing that the inscription should instead read “Peace, prosperity, and friendship with all nations.”
For those who don’t mind the lack of the Oxford comma, a gold version of the coin was offered. But according to the royal mint, those coins — priced at 945 pounds, or about $1,240, each — are out of stock.
E.U. leaders lament the loss and look to the future.
After offering kind words on Britain’s departure, Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, Charles Michel of the European Council and David Sassoli of the European Parliament tried to strike an upbeat tone.
“We need to look to the future and build a new partnership between enduring friends,” they wrote. “Together, our three institutions will do everything in their power to make it a success. We are ready to be ambitious.”
The article was published alongside a cheery video touting the European Union’s economic and climate-friendly credentials and maintaining that its remaining 27 members were “#strongertogether.”
Brussels wants the message to be clear, because while Britain’s departure has yet to inspire strong withdrawal movements in other countries, as some expected immediately after the 2016 referendum, many Europeans are disillusioned with the project of ever closer union.
“We have a common vision of where we want to go and a commitment to be ambitious on the defining issues of our times,” the three presidents said. “That work continues as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.”
Megan Specia, Marc Santora, Elian Peltier, Jack Ewing, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Christopher F. Schuetze, Amie Tsang, Steven Erlanger and Michael Wolgelenter contributed reporting.
