Brexit is full of surprises. The result was a surprise even for the Leavers. For me and many others, it was a sad surprise. No longer was the European Union an irreversible project. It was established to create irreversible economic and political bonds for the sake of an ever-lasting peace. The Union embodied values, and the most important of all was: peace. The EU was and is much more than an economic added value. The Union is not an aim in itself. It is a peace project. Brexit has national sovereignty as a goal in itself. If the EU falls...

Britain’s vote on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union came as a shock not only to many in the United Kingdom but also to many across the rest of the European Union. It was the first time that a member state had voted to withdraw from a Union that, since its emergence in the 1950s, had grown to encompass most of Europe and so become the continent’s predominant organization for economics, politics, social matters and non-traditional security (NATO remaining the key organization for defence). In the rush to analyse the meaning of the referendum result, the focus has...

On his first foreign trip after being elected German president in early 2017, Frank-Walter Steinmeier chose to visit the European Parliament to make a strong plea for European integration. In the speech he characterized Brexit, and in particular the conduct of the Leave campaign, as “irresponsible” (Steinmeier 2017). This notion of irresponsibility, of political brinkmanship for short-sighted political gain, best describes the impression of the German political elite towards the Brexit vote and former UK prime minister David Cameron’s decision to seek a renegotiated UK–EU relationship. This was reflected in Chancellor Merkel’s controversial statement in May 2017, when she...

No issue in peacetime has preoccupied the Irish elite and public to the same extent as the United Kingdom’s renegotiation, referendum and vote to withdraw from the European Union.

Although the Irish Republic’s accession to the then European Economic Community helped it move away from its dependence on the UK, the two countries have maintained close economic, social and political relations. They have also cooperated on many issues relating to the Northern Ireland peace process. The Common Travel Area that Ireland and the UK share – which allows for free movement and establishment across Ireland, the UK and some UK...

After the Second World War France and the United Kingdom both pursued the same goal: to use Europe as leverage to increase their international power (Tombs 2006:607–33). Considering the complicated history between the two nations, sharing the same objective was not going to lead to greater cooperation, but to rivalry. This trait of the Franco-British relationship is extremely important, because it has been at the centre of how the two countries have perceived each other. This rivalry should not, however, lead us to overlook how the twentieth century saw a fundamental shift in relations between the two. After centuries...

Cameron’s Brexit gamble made waves in Warsaw. The United Kingdom has been Poland’s long- time ally in the European Union and NATO, and Warsaw did not want to see London leave the EU.

The UK supported the eastern enlargement that paved the way for Polish membership of the EU in 2004. Warsaw and London have also taken a firm stance towards an increasingly assertive Moscow and pushed for sanctions after Russia invaded Crimea. Both countries also worked hand in hand in favour of further liberalization of the single market. Every relationship has its ups and downs, however, and so does...

The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union will reshape the EU and, in particular, the EU’s institutions.¹ The European Parliament will lose 73 British members. The Commission will have one Commissioner fewer and will have to deal with the more than 1,000 British nationals it employs. The Council of the EU will see a change in its balance of votes – and consequently in its voting patterns. The Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions will lose their British members, and the future of thousands of Britons working in the wider EU policy-making community has...

Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg share a common history of close ties to Britain and pioneering European integration. All three governments went into exile in Britain during the Second World War. It was in London that they sowed the first seeds of European integration, by signing the Benelux monetary agreement of 21 October 1943. A Customs Convention followed in 1944, leading to the creation of the Benelux Union. Later, all three states became founding members of the European Economic Community.

Geographic proximity has meant that the Benelux countries share close political, economic and military links to the United Kingdom. Despite...

While the Nordic countries share many similarities, there are also significant differences between them. These similarities and differences are also present in the field of foreign policy, including in their relationships with the European Union and the United Kingdom. Denmark and Sweden took part in the creation of EFTA with the UK and others in 1960, whereas Finland became an associate member of EFTA in 1961 and a full member in 1986. Denmark followed the UK closely in its attempts to become a member of the EEC in the 1960s and became a member with, and because of, the UK...

The four Mediterranean EU member states listed here vary not only in size but also in their links to the United Kingdom and their place in the European Union. As a founding member, Italy has often been overshadowed by France and Germany. But its contributions and role have been considerable, with it often backing efforts towards further European integration. Greece’s accession to the EEC in 1981 was part of its move to becoming a democratic country. Its commitment to European integration saw it join the euro, a decision that since the global financial crisis of 2007 has plunged both Greece...

Spain and Portugal are both strongly pro-European countries. After decades of relative isolation and socio-economic backwardness under authoritarian rule, in 1986 they simultaneously joined the then European Economic Community as a way to support their democratization, modernization and international reorientation (see Royo & Manuel 2003). Since their “return to Europe” the two countries have been committed EU members, both being part of the Schengen area and Eurozone as well as supporting advances in foreign and security cooperation. Located on the southern fringe of Europe, with less developed economies than their northern partners but with rich national histories that give them special...

For Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, domestic and international policies are informed disproportionately by questions of the existential threat of neighbouring and openly irredentist Russia. The responses of the three Baltic states to the United Kingdom’s renegotiation, referendum and vote to leave have followed this logic. Indeed, the UK was a major power in each of the two strategic tracks that all three countries had used to make their removal from the Western security umbrella as unlikely as possible, namely NATO membership and rapid and deep integration into all European Union initiatives.¹

We argue that the similar existential threats shared by...

As with the rest of the European Union, the United Kingdom’s decision to seek a renegotiated EU relationship and a referendum was greeted with a mix of irritation and concern in the central European states of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The renegotiation, the campaign, the result and the uncertainty and speculation that followed presented these four medium-sized EU member states with a variety of challenges and opportunities.

Despite their geographical proximity, these four states vary in both their levels of integration in the EU, their cooperation with one another and their relations with the UK. Austria, which...

Much like across the rest of Europe, the vote by the British people to leave the European Union was not expected by the countries of south-eastern Europe. Amongst the newest members of the EU, they had all striven to become members of an organization that, along with NATO, had come to define European politics. This amplified the shock that the United Kingdom, a leading European state that had backed the enlargement of both organizations, had now decided to turn its back on the EU. Geographically, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia are part of a wider region in which geopolitics and...

To understand Brexit requires not only an analysis of the result of the 23 June 2016 referendum or of the politics of the United Kingdom. We also need to look at how the other 27 member states and European Union institutions responded to it. UK–EU relations are, like any relationship, a two-way thing. By looking at how the rest of the EU responded to the renegotiation, the referendum campaign and its result we can gain a fuller appreciation of Brexit. As this book has shown, Brexit can be set against longer-term trends in EU–UK relations and has been...