Britain is split over European Union. Both pro- and anti-EU camps assume that a stay/leave referendum next month is a process that will be able to settle this issue conclusively. Winston Churchill once declared that "we are in Europe, but not of it". This thinking originates from the notion of British detachment from mainland Europe. Although other countries in Europe have held referendums on specific EU treaties and even rerun them in the event of public rejection, as Denmark and Ireland did, the proposal by a country to hold a stay/leave referendum is unique to Britain, as was previously held in 1975. The last referendum on the issue was to decide whether to stay in the European Economic Community (EEC) as it was called then. Britons' decision to continue membership then has had wide-ranging constitutional consequences and started a continuing political debate on the country's relationship with Europe. Four decades later, another referendum on whether to stay in or come out of the EU is set for next month as the best way to resolve the 'Europe debate' on how far to continue with a closer political union with Europe.
The British public, rarely reliably informed about the complexities of EU politics, are mostly concerned about the ideal of sovereignty, and the June referendum offers an attractive promise of the opportunity to choose a customised level of union with Europe. In particular, at the core of the anti-EU demand for referendum is the replacement of the common market with political union that British voters accepted in 1975. In the last forty years since Britons last decided on a Europe vote there has been a sea change in the institutions of the EU. There is now an elected parliament, a lot of the veto power of the member states has been reduced, and the EU has been involved in civilian and military operations abroad, created a border-free travel area (the Schengen Area) and established its own currency. These unique developments greatly distinguish the EU from some of the other forms of regional agreements such as North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) where trade is at the core of such agreements. In all of this, there is a remarkable discrepancy at the centre of the British debate. Although the UK has chosen not to be part of Schengen or the euro, it has actively supported the reduction of veto power in the European Council and the expansion of EU's foreign policy remit. So it is hardly the case that these radical institutional and policy changes have simply been imposed upon an unwilling or unwitting participant.
One of the fundamental issues at the core of the EU foundation, which constantly raises anti-EU sentiment in Britain, is the free movement of workers, and associated rights to welfare which are elevated by the supremacy of the EU legal order over member countries' national laws. This dissatisfaction with basic EU principles demonstrates that the stay/leave referendum is not necessarily a vote on whether to accept, what the EU is all about. It is rather a call to decide if the core concept of European integration fits in with the core British interests and identity. Other countries in Europe, from time to time, have had to negotiate their relationship with the European integration process; countries, such as Switzerland and Norway have opted for a halfway house membership yet the United Kingdom is the only EU member state where the possibility of a complete withdrawal is on the cards. According to David Cameron there is a necessity to renew the British public's opinion because since the last referendum the democratic consent of Britain's membership of Europe has eroded thin and the forthcoming referendum will allow Britons to give their renewed judgement on the agenda of ever closer integration and living with its continuously changing consequences for generations to come.
Despite the appeal of a stay/leave outcome that the referendum offers, an outright British break with the EU is impossible: British political and economic interests are such that the UK must maintain a form of institutionalised relationship with Europe. Therefore, should the UK decide to vote itself out of Europe it will be akin to putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. The day after the referendum result of rejecting EU membership nothing will change in the UK, but everything will start to become different. Even after the British public give their verdict, in reality the UK will continue to remain a member of the EU for many years to come until the European parliament passes legislation that releases Britain from the EU; until then the machinery of UK government across the land will have to continue to enforce primary and secondary EU legislations. Meanwhile, the next phase of the primary business of British politics will commence and the enormous task in hand will be to reconfigure the UK's economic and political relationship with Europe and the rest of the world.
Reconfiguration of Britain's new relationship with the European Union as a new trading partner but a non-political member would be the most complex task of all. After all, the EU is Britain's biggest trading partner and foreign investors do business with Britain on the basis of access to full extent of European market by virtue of Britain's membership of the EU. Therefore, a complete withdrawal from this market would be unthinkable for Britain and would be self-destructive and significantly wounding to the British economy. A different kind of relationship with the EU would have to be thought of as a non-member state. Norway and Switzerland, for example, are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) which affords these countries single market participation but in return for implementation of EU rules without any voting rights. It would be most unlikely that Britain will choose such a route after going through a referendum to exit the EU and then re-entering the sphere of Brussels' regulatory zeal via a different route but on a non-voting basis. The most plausible membership for a Britain outside of the EU would be to enter into a bilateral agreement with the EU, like Switzerland, which may take many years. Therefore, in essence even if Britain votes to come out of Europe (which is unlikely) Britain will still remain in a perpetual Europe debate.
rchoudhury2@gmail.com
Britain\'s EU referendum: A perpetual Europe debate
Rana Choudhury from London | Published: May 29, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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