The United Kingdom finally ended its 43 years of union and voted to leave European Union on July 23rd, 2016, they strongly voted to leave EU by 51% to 48%. When they first joined hands, the fundamental purpose was to promote economic, political, social coalition and harmony, so they will less likely to be engaged into conflicts. Europe decided that they will be in more advantage economically and geopolitically by forming a unified group of countries.
It is evident if we see their per person GDP rate year by year. Also members like France Germany and the UK are the biggest economy in EU as well as in the world. Since they have unified, their growth track have also elevated along with each other.
As EU has become more unified its members have become more subservient. For UK however when it comes to common strategies and defense, it can happily exchange it with its sovereignty, so UK chose to disagree a little with the key aspect of EU. Its disagreement toward many policies started to hit up their ties. Starting with The Schengen free travel zone. UK restrained itself to join in the opening of border for the rest of the Europe allowing them to freely travel across the Europe. Opening of the border also allowed migration which was painful for the UK. The huge influx of migrants caused a huge strain on UK-EU relation as Britons found it a little too crowded for their country. The rate of immigration rose all across the Europe, but compared to other European countries UK has the highest population rate as population density per square mile reached to 662. Migrants fled from their countries to settle into the preferred strong economic countries as Spain, Germany, France and the UK; however UK absorbed far more migrants than others.
Although Immigrants have also brought skills and talent with them, they also brought trouble, many anti-immigrants and raciest group arose causing riots in the country. Another cause that put heavy pressure on the leaders was terrorism; some terrorist activities were carried out by immigrants which caused much causality. Hence due to the raging anti-immigrant activities and terrorism disturbing the peace the leaders decided to stop the flow and closed the gates for the unwanted guests, fences were built, deportation rose, check points were setup along the borders.
During the recession period many EU countries suffered economic upheaval, like Greece for example whose condition was wore off. So the other members of EU had to offer the helping hand, in this situation many believed that UK as one of the stabilized economies was contributing too much to the Budget of EU. In the money issue Briton also disagreed to replace British Pound with Euro.
With all the discomfort UK concluded that their relation has become more about loss rather than sharing sovereignty so, they should separate their ways. In 2016 Prime Minister David Cameron scheduled a referendum for whether UK should remain a member of EU or exit the group. While Cameron campaigned to remain in EU many others strongly advocated the disadvantages the unity was causing the country. Hence the circumstances went against his ideas and referendum resulted in Brexit. The immediate outcome of the referendum was marked by economic uncertainty followed by political disorientation in the form of Cameron’s resignation.
Accession of Theresa May to the position of Prime Minister and her declaration of a serene and beneficial Brexit seemed Satisfying at the moment. However, Brexit aftermath caused upheaval and things started to take uneasy turn between UK and EU.
Recently Ms. May attended the meeting with the European council and discussed the trade and border issues, in which she stressed that free trade policy, should be reconsidered for the benefit of the people and the future relationship of UK with EU. She stated that “I warned EU leaders that I do not think this parliament will approve the withdrawal agreement in the autumn unless we have clarity about our future relationship alongside it”. Further she added that EU has to consider this proposal seriously. British parliament has set out 98 page white paper in the hope that will ease the negotiation.
However Ms. May have face serious backlash after the two leading campaigners of Brexit and minister of British parliament David Doris and Boris Johnson have resigned from their positions in protest at Ms. May’s plan. These two resignations have placed Ms. May in hot water, it might also aggravate the rebellion of pro. EU MP’s in her conservative party. Nevertheless Ms. May’s attempt of the white paper surely indicates her concern for a Business-friendly relation with EU. Thought the question arises is that will she be able to calm the rebellion within the parliament and succeed in carrying out a happy relation with EU in future, or her plans will make things more critical.