Media caption Brexit: How did we get here? As Brexit dawned, I found myself reporting for the BBC from outside the glass and concrete behemoth, otherwise known as the European Commission building, in Brussels.
It’s the same place I’ve regularly stood over the past three- and-a-half years, attempting to explain the EU perspective on Brexit following our referendum and throughout the divorce negotiations.
It struck me that the impersonal, impenetrable-looking monolith embodies the image so many back in the UK have of the EU as a whole.
But going through my mind on Friday night were all the “ordinary” Europeans I’ve met across the continent while covering the Brexit story: engineers, teachers, bakers and bus drivers who asked “Why are you doing this? ” and insisted: “Don’t leave!”
Whilst never the most enthusiastic member, the UK was part of the European project for almost half a century.
Behind closed doors and away from gaze of the UK’s more eurosceptic media, we were known for playing a big part in launching some of the bloc’s most ambitious projects: the single market , the single currency (though we then opted not to join the euro) and the EU’s enlargement eastwards.
On a personal level, EU leaders tell me they’ll miss having the British sense of humor and no-nonsense attitude at their table.
If they were to be brutally honest they’d have admitted they’ll mourn the loss of our not-insignificant contribution to the EU budget too.
But now we’ve left the “European family” (as Brussels insiders sometimes like to call the EU) and as trade talks begin, how long will it take for warm words to turn into gritted teeth?
On the eve of Brexit, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, pledged the EU would always act “with a sense of brotherhood “towards the UK.
But familiarity can breed contempt. Whether family feuds or lovers’ quarrels, aren’t some of the deepest rifts between people who once shared the closest of bonds?
Ministers in Boris Johnson’s government wonder aloud why the EU demands they sign up to free trade agreement conditions the EU did impose on others like Canada or Japan.
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