So long, U.K., and thanks for all the fish.

The EU27 leaders on Friday approved a Brexit transition period and guidelines for negotiations on a future relationship with the U.K. in just two minutes. And many of them now wish the U.K. would similarly speed things up, and just get the heck out already.

Gone are the days when officials in Brussels were secretly hoping the U.K. would somehow reverse course. Now, nearly a year after the start of talks, even some of Britain's closest allies on the Continent, like the Netherlands and Luxembourg, are eager for Brexit to be over and done with.

The U.K. had created the momentum for the transition deal with series of swift U-turns on issues such as citizens' rights and fisheries access that have infuriated some ardent supporters of Brexit in the U.K.

But the European Council's swift approval of the guidelines — despite the absence of a clear solution for the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland — reflects both fatigue among officials eager to focus on the European Union's own future, and a desire to be rid of U.K. perennial demands for special treatment.

"No, it's not a red carpet, it's like runway lights to show them the way" — EU diplomat

So rather than throwing up obstacles and putting pressure on U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, at a time of maximum leverage in the negotiations, the EU27 leaders on Friday continued a pattern of helping to carry Britain to the door.

"This is the second time that they were incapable of expressing what they want, and so we had to do the work for them, that they were supposed to do," a senior EU diplomat said. The diplomat was referring to the conclusion of Phase 1 of the negotiations in December, in which the EU27 leaders declared "sufficient progress" despite a litany of outstanding disagreements on key divorce issues.

Another EU diplomat rejected the suggestion that the 27 had rolled out a red carpet to the exit. "No, it's not a red carpet, it's like runway lights," the diplomat said, "to show them the way."

To be sure, the EU27 are not entirely thrilled with how Brexit is shaping up. They would far prefer if May and her government had taken what Brussels views as an eminently more reasonable approach and agreed to remain inside the EU's single market and customs union. The guidelines approved on Friday include a provision to emphasize that the U.K. would be more than welcome to change its mind.

One motivation for not making life too awkward for May was to avoid sending the U.K. hurtling off the so-called cliff edge, creating an economic calamity for everyone.

"The European Council is very risk-averse," a senior official working on Brexit said. At a time when U.S. President Donald Trump and others are creating instability and mayhem, the EU has no appetite for further upheaval, officials said.

Brussels also believes that the U.K. has retreated, over and over again, on its toughest negotiating positions, and that further concessions — perhaps even a decision to remain in the customs union — are inevitable, largely because they are in Britain's economic self-interest. U.K. officials say talk of a shift towards a customs union is for the birds.

But Brussels has also softened its tone: At the beginning of the talks there was the idea that London had to be punished for its decision, something similar to what occurred with Greece. Then French President François Hollande said that “there must be a threat, there must be a risk, there must be a price. Otherwise we will be in a negotiation that cannot end well.”

Whereas now, said a Northern European diplomat, “nobody talks anymore about that, the pressure is only to finish it on time."

While some critics on the Continent say the U.K. is getting off cheap, securing a 21-month transition deal, for instance, with not one cent of additional cost beyond what it would have paid had it remained a member, other officials in Brussels have not forgotten the loud proclamations at the start of the negotiations by some Brexiteers.

“We have the chance, now, to create a new dynamic in the talks” — British Prime Minister Theresa May

"Remember, they were saying they were going to leave without paying anything at all," the senior official said.

British officials this week expressed increasing happiness with the outcome of the guidelines, and portions of the draft withdrawal treaty that have been agreed by the EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his British counterpart, David Davis.

Addressing her fellow EU leaders at the summit's working dinner, May portrayed this week as a breakthrough moment that would change the mood of the talks to come.

“We have the chance, now, to create a new dynamic in the talks,” she said, according to prepared remarks briefed by Downing Street. The U.K. and the EU should, she added, “work together to explore workable solutions — in Northern Ireland, in our future security cooperation and in order to ensure the future prosperity of all our people. This is an opportunity, it is our duty to take and to enter into with energy and ambition.”

The ambition on the U.K. side is to secure a bespoke Brexit deal — one that maintains as many of the benefits of U.K.-EU trade as would be feasible outside the single market and the customs union. And they seem increasingly confident that they can achieve it.

On the Brussels side, there is still a bright red line when it comes to any attempt by the U.K. to cherry-pick EU benefits.

While the gap in expectation is not surprising, more unexpected is how the EU has effectively spent the last year helping the U.K. to the exit.

In December, when negotiators had failed to come up with any workable agreement on Ireland, and many issues related to citizens' rights remained unresolved, Brussels could have refused to declare "sufficient progress" and delayed by months any talk of transition or the future relationship.

Instead, EU negotiators worked frantically through nights and weekends and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker joined May for a pre-dawn press conference to paper over many disagreements on the key divorce issues, and urged the Council to proclaim Phase 1 of the talks to be a success.

And now, with no agreement on Ireland and Spain raising fresh questions about Gibraltar, Barnier marked up a draft withdrawal treaty with green highlighter to signal to the 27 leaders that they should green-light both a 21-month transition period as well as the guidelines on the future relationship. It took just two minutes for leaders to do as he proposed — even though the key section on Northern Ireland stayed conspicuously white — color code for "unresolved."

But the approval of the guidelines was just the start of the leaders' discussion about Brexit on Friday. Over the next two hours, they talked about how to frame the political declaration that will accompany the formal withdrawal treaty. The U.K. wants that political declaration to be as specific as possible. In Brussels, the goal is to keep it broad and vague, leaving the details to the formal trade talks that will start after Brexit.

The senior EU official working on Brexit said there was still an even chance talks would collapse — something that the guidelines adopted Friday explicitly call on the Commission and member countries to prepare for, just in case. "We don't want to be the ones accused of causing the cliff," the official said. "But they may still go over it."