Great Britain’s European Union Exit

This 28-member association of European nations was established in 1958 with the goal of fostering closer economic ties between Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It was established immediately following the Second World War, and its major purpose was to expand and facilitate trade between nations. Around 1993, the union began developing internal policies to address climate, environment, and health issues; as a result, its name was changed to European Union from European Economic Union (Oliver, 2014). The European Union has achieved a lot through its common currency for all its members the euro. Through the free border crossing from one state to another they have achieved peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights throughout Europe. The citizens can easily live freely from either states or work as well (Peter 2016, p.214).

The tensions within the European Union

The expansion of the EU towards the east and southern parts of Europe raised main concerns as the member states varied in interests. For example if we look at the countries which boarder the Mediterranean towards the south, have great influence politically and economically towards the North African countries more than the others which are farthest. The Russian entry into the EU had raised doubts on the interests of the union due to Russia’s recent domination over the continent. All these uncertainties are glued to certain factors such as the ongoing Economic Difficulties, the rising of the E-U /”Euroskeptic” political parties, lack of strong leadership and strategic vision, increased acrimony and decreased solidarity (Hay 2013, p. 196).

England’s entry into EU (Brexit)

This has been the most challenging issue that European Union has ever faced. Britain through Prime Minister Theresa May produced the article 50 agenda to which Britain is intending to withdraw from the European Union. This was a notice that the Great Britain should withdraw not later than April 2009 (Charles 2012, p 169). The E U accepts two years of campaign and addressing issues of the state willing to withdraw to clearly address its concerns and be debated on. The other countries debate on the exit which is not always easy for the head of states. From the majority rule Britain’s fate will be decided. It’s evident that Britain’s exit would trigger a great negative affection the member states as the bloc without Britain would mean the northern states for example Denmark and Holland would be directly affected economically (Rankin 2016, p.5).

The contents of article 50

From each individual state’s constitution any member state can withdraw from the European union if need be according to nits own constitutionals requirements

The withdrawing party should give a prior notice to the European Council. In this manner the council will lay down strictures of the withdrawing country and the procedures which it will withdraw with and maintain the relationship of the states so as to foster their agreement in case it could consider joining at a later date. All this will be negotiated by the council on behalf of the union.

The representative of the withdrawing state will not be allowed to participate in any discussions of the council which will be responsible for making the withdrawing decision.

The treaties in place will immediately cease to function ion the member state on the immediate submission on the withdrawal agreement or the submission of the notification.

If the state withdraws and considers to rejoin , it will be subjected to article 49

Britain exit plan

The white paper publication was released with articles on how Britain would exit from the European Union. This was due to pressure from the MP’s from Britain’s House of Commons. This paper outlined various factors which Britain considered for the exit from the EU. However there factors to which Britain considered these are (Dammam, 2017):

Trade – though the country will withdraw from the union, it still wishes to continue trading with its neighbors and for this reason, Britain will consider negotiating with the countries on new tariffs and customs which it will use to trade with them. This agreement will be free and fair towards the countries and the union.

Immigration - since new rules will be put to place, new immigration rules will be introduced. These will help to fill in the gaps that will be left and create new opportunities to foreigners.

Expats - this factor is a major factor to Britain. The government wishes to negotiate with the EU on the citizens living in the country from the EU member states and its own citizens living in other European states

Sovereignty – trade disputes are a major threat to European economic world and for this reason, Britain wouldn’t want any jurisdiction to be held by the European court of justice instead have its own internal machinery of solving trade disputes.

Border – it confiders to have a boundary with won’t cause conflicts between Northern Ireland and Ireland as its main interests lies there.

Devolution – it considers to have Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland given power to make decisions though they are still part of UK.

Consequences of Brexit

Rising of the populists, anti–elite kind of politics that is famous in Europe and the USA which is a great threat towards global order and can cause rivalry between member states.

Since Britain’s exit is scheduled on a 2019 dates is common that with time it will experience difficulties in developing logistical elements itself and may suffer from the divorce from EU.

Japan will continue to hold on to its bilateral trade deal despite the fact that the Brexit effects would mean otherwise

The free trade deals which UK has ever made with the EU countries, upon its exit it will have to renegotiate with them especially with the trade policies which is expensive (Renwick, 2016).

Conclusion

The United Kingdom has over time had the debate in its House sittings in the agenda of the withdrawal however, the new prime minister had it in place after gaining office. It’s a fact that the decision to withdraw will have a major impact in the economic sector of the country. It will take time before Britain come back to its own feet as it won’t be able to work alone on factors that it shared with other European Union countries (Bloom 2017, p.22). The withdrawal will take effect 2019 April and this will be determined by the negotiations by the council and the union itself to determine the impact of UK’s withdrawal to the union and the member states (Bowcott, Mason & Asthana 2017, p16).

The union will therefore determine through a democratic forum of debates and amendments of the agreements made by Britain and the union and fro the majority rule, the decision will be met. The countries members of sates will as well have to decide as they will consider the Euro currency drop as a result of trade issues across the borders. Since the trade routes will be affected before new rules will be put off place by the UK on the trade tariffs (Cooper 2016).

Recommendation

The United Kingdom should reconsider its decision as it’s one of the worlds super power and controls Africa’s countries’ economies as well. Its withdraw will affect the African economy as well. It will be expensive to start bilateral trade agreements with states which it had agreements before. It will take time as well for the state to make new rules on economic development.

This will affect the relationship of Britain and the European countries which depended on Britain for support either through infrastructure or resources for development. Trade routs will be restructured thus would mean it won’t have a free resource sharing that is roads and trading markets and would hike the standards of living for the European countries (Alderton & Kavanagh 2016, p 28).

References

Alderton, John; Kavanagh, Helen (24 June 2016). “EU Referendum Results: It’s Going To Be Brexit”. The National Law Review. Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP. Retrieved 28 June 2016, p. 28

Bloom, Dan (29 March 2017). “Brexit Day recap: Article 50 officially triggered on historic day as Theresa May warns: ’No turning back’”. Daily Mirror. p. 22 Retrieved 29 March 2017.

Bowcott, Owen; Mason, Rowena; Asthana, Anushka (24 January 2017). “Supreme court rules parliament must have vote to trigger article 50”. The Guardian. p. 16 Retrieved 9 February 2017.

Charles M Rieder, ’The withdrawal clause of the Lisbon Treaty in the light of EU citizenship’, op. cit 2012., pp. 168-172

Cooper, Charlie (27 June 2016). “David Cameron rules out second EU referendum after Brexit”. The Independent. London, UK. Retrieved 27 June 2016.

Dammann, Jens (5 April 2017). “Revoking Brexit: Can Member States Rescind Their Declaration of Withdrawal from the European Union”. Columbia Journal of European Law. Columbia University. Retrieved 5 April 2017.

Hay, Iain (2013). “Geographies of the superrich”. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 196. Retrieved 20 January 2015.

Oliver, Tim. “Europe without Britain: Assessing the Impact on the European Union of a British Withdrawal”. Stiftung Wissenshaft und Politik. Retrieved 1 March 2014.

Peter Nicolaides, ’Withdrawal from the European Union: a typology of effects’, op. cit., p. 214.

Renwick, Alan (19 January 2016)

Proctor, Kate (27 June 2016). “Cameron sets up Brexit unit”. Yorkshire Post. West Yorkshire, UK. Retrieved 27 June 2016 p 7

Rankin, Jennifer (25 June 2016). “What is Article 50 and why is it so central to the Brexit debate?”. The Guardian. Retrieved 3 July 2016 p 4-6

 Renwick, Alan (19 January 2016). “What happens if we vote for Brexit?”. The Constitution Unit Blog. Retrieved 14 May 2016