Countries
band together to promote trade, defend human rights, protect the environment
and repel threats.
They
sign treaties and join international groups, and each time they do, they give
up a bit of independence.
That
happened in a big way with the creation of the European Union, a free-trade
zone and global political force forged from the fractious states of Europe.
The
question always was, could this extraordinary experiment hold together? Faced
with the choice in a June 23 in-or-out referendum, the U.K. voted to leave the
bloc it joined in 1973. The way many Brits saw it, the trade-offs they’d made
to be part of the EU — notably control over immigration — no longer served
their interests.
They
chose what’s become known as Brexit.
Voters
supported the split by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent after a rancorous
10-week campaign that divided the nation. The result prompted Prime Minister
David Cameron, who had pushed for the U.K. to remain in the 28-nation bloc, to
say he’ll resign by October.
The
vote jolted financial markets, sending the U.K. currency tumbling to its lowest
level since 1985. The political turmoil included Scotland’s devolved government
paving the way for a new referendum on breaking away from the U.K. so it can
remain part of the EU. The U.K. will have two years to negotiate the mechanics
and terms of an exit once it takes the legal steps to leave the block, with
talks to unwind agreements in areas as diverse as fishing quotas, financial-services
legislation and health and safety standards.
Cameron
had warned that a withdrawal would trigger a recession and a decade of
uncertainty for jobs, trade and the broader economy.
Advocates
of a split, including the country’s leading tabloid newspapers and Boris
Johnson, the popular former mayor of London, argued for Britain to leave the EU
to regain control of its laws and slow a larger-than-expected influx of
immigrants.
Because
the free movement of citizens is a basic tenet of EU law, leaving the bloc is
the only sure way to stem the flow.
Cameron
pledged to hold the ballot after rising euroskepticism fed support for the
anti-EU U.K. Independence Party, which won 13 percent of the vote in the 2015
general election.
The
U.K. waited 16 years to join the European Economic Community after it was
formed in 1957, and some people immediately argued that it should pull out.
The
last U.K. referendum on the question was held in 1975 and passed by a margin of
2-to-1. Prime Minister John Major’s government almost fell in 1993 when some of
his party’s lawmakers voted against him over the signing of the Maastricht
Treaty, which expanded cooperation and created the European Union.
The
same euroskepticism kept Britain from adopting the single currency when it was
launched in 1999. The bloc added eight eastern European countries in 2004,
triggering a wave of immigration that strained public services. In England and
Wales, the share of foreign-born residents swelled to 13.4 percent of the
population by 2011, roughly double the level in 1991.
In
recent years, people have been lured from other EU states by Britain’s economy,
which had been growing at twice the pace of the euro zone. The U.K. is the
second-biggest EU country by economic output and the third-largest by
population, after Germany and France. There’s still a queue of countries
waiting to join the bloc.
Brexit
campaigners capitalized on mounting worries about migration to the U.K., which
overshadowed fears of the economic fallout of leaving the bloc. The EU is the
country’s largest export market, and global companies may cut investment or
leave the U.K. because it’s unclear whether they will still be able to sell
into the single market without tariffs.
Any
trade deal — which might resemble those struck by Norway and Switzerland, two
countries that aren’t part of the EU — will likely require some concessions on
the free movement of people.
The
euroskeptics argue that the EU wants to grow into a super-state that impinges
more on national sovereignty.
They
say that the U.K. has global clout without the bloc, and can negotiate better
trade treaties without being held back by EU protectionists.
Source:
www.bloomberg.com
“There’s
still a queue of countries waiting to join the EU bloc.”
Robert
Hutton
