A few days after the Heads of State or Government, the main political families of the European Parliament took note, on Tuesday 17 December in Strasbourg, of the imminent departure of their British colleagues and expressed, for some of them, "their sadness".
After the extremely clear victory of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the parliamentary elections of 12 December, the 75 British MEPs will indeed very soon leave the Chamber, with Brexit most probably due to take place by 31 January 2020.
"At least there is clarity", said Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP group, which will not lose any elected officials in the operation. For the German, the priority now is to focus on the future trade agreement and not to allow any access to the internal market "without meeting our standards".
In other groups, there was no hiding a great emotion, especially among the Greens/EFA, who will lose 11 British members and win four with the elected officials "frozen" during the May 2019 elections. Despite this gain, they will move behind the ID group in the Parliament and become the 5th group in the Chamber. This is bad news in symbolic terms, "but our strike force will remain unchanged", the Belgian Co-President, Philippe Lamberts sought to reassure.
The same sadness is felt by the S&D, which will lose 10 Labour representatives - some of whom, such as Richard Corbett or Claude Moraes, have been in office for a long time - and will gain four. "We are sad, our group is sad", said Iratxe García Pérez, the group's president from Spain. "We pay tribute to the work of our British comrades".
The Renew Europe group will also lose members, with 17 British elected officials leaving and six new arrivals. Changes that could even look like an organisational puzzle, with some members of the Liberal Group reminding us that everything will have to be reviewed when the British leave.
But beyond these practical aspects, on Tuesday many were still struggling to recover from Boris Johnson's triumph, which took votes from the Labour Party. Among them, Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, French), who stressed that the "discontent" of the British population had not been perceived and should, in this sense, constitute a warning signal.
According to Philippe Lamberts, the responsibility for this victory also rests largely with Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Labour, unable to take a stand and be "firm on the 'Remain'".
In the meantime, on Tuesday morning, everyone was united on one point: a trade agreement in just under 11 months seems very difficult for them to reach and, even if it were, this agreement could only take up "the bare minimum", as described by the Frenchwoman Nathalie Loiseau. "But a full and complete agreement is very ambitious", she added.
The Parliament will be called upon to vote on the withdrawal agreement in plenary immediately after its ratification by the Westminster Parliament, a ratification that Boris Johnson wants to obtain just after the Christmas and New Year holidays. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)