'We will always love you': EU Parliament approves Brexit deal
The European Parliament voted in favour of the Brexit withdrawal agreement by 621 votes to 49. A simple majority was required in the 751-seat legislature. EU member states must finally approve the deal in a written procedure, though this should be a formality.
Britain's membership in the EU is to cease at midnight on Friday (2300 GMT), three-and-a-half years after a 2016 referendum that delivered a narrow victory for "leave." Little will change in practice for the duration of an 11-month transitional phase.
"We will always love you and we will never be far," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of the vote.
"We will miss you," the parliament's Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, said, nonetheless urging his fellow EU lawmakers to approve the legislation to avoid a "wild" disorderly Brexit.
After the vote, lawmakers held hands and sang "Auld Lang Syne" - a poem by Scotland's Robert Burns set to folk music and associated with New Year's Eve.
Britain's departure date, initially set for March 2019, was postponed several times amid disagreement in the British parliament on what shape Brexit should take.
In October, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally struck a deal with his EU counterparts. His deal was then accepted by parliament after snap elections delivered him a landslide majority.
The European Parliament had always stressed that it could only vote on the withdrawal agreement following ratification in Britain, a process that was completed last week.
It was one of the final acts in office for Britain's 73 EU representatives; they must leave at the end of the week. Several shed tears and pledged to return to the EU one day.
But the Brexit party's Nigel Farage said Friday will mark "the point of no return."
"Once we've left, we're never coming back. And the rest, frankly, is detail," he added.
The legal text of the Brexit deal runs to more than 500 pages and specifies the details of Britain's departure.
It includes key provisions on citizens' rights, arrangements to maintain peace on the divided island of Ireland and Britain's remaining financial obligations.
But it says nothing about Britain's future relationship with the EU, with painstaking negotiations due to start on everything from trade and security relations to future fishing rights.
A number of events are planned in Brussels to mark the departure of Britain's members of European Parliament in the coming days, some celebratory and some more sombre in tone.
Brexit is to prompt a reshuffle within the EU legislature, which will shrink from 751 seats to 705.
