“Brexit” on the Horizon?

A so-called “Brexit” might be on the horizon, according to Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission.

On 13 January, Delors publicly acknowledged that Britain might be on its way out of the European Union.

Along with two other politicians, Pascal Lamy and Antonio Vitorino, Delors wrote in an article for Euractiv emphasizing the necessary changes the EU will have to make if Britain is to remain a member.

Delors, a founder of the modern EU, called for unity among European nations while affirming that no country should have to remain in the EU against its wishes.

“We must unite further in order to promote this common will, along with our interests and our values, in an increasingly less Eurocentric world through the adoption of more consistent trade and external aid policies, through the creation of a genuine energy union, and through the patient bolstering of our common foreign and defence policy, because strength lies in numbers.

“This Union naturally needs the United Kingdom—but only as long a majority of its citizens still wish to be a part of it, because the Union is by no means a prison.”

In response to this article, Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of Eurosceptic campaign group Business for Britain, said: “It’s nice to see that even the modern architects of the EU now realise that the EU needs to change if the UK is to remain a member.

“But these EU grandees still fail to grasp why so many Europeans are deeply unhappy with the EU, by yet again arguing for more integrating, more Brussels and a greater focus on propping up the Euro.”

Mr Delors is not the only person who advocates a “Brexit” (shorthand for British exit).

David Davis, Conservative former Shadow Home Secretary, said earlier this week that David Cameron needed to persuade German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the UK leaving the EU is not just “sabre-rattling.”

Speaking in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Davis said:

What [David Cameron’s] got to do is to persuade [Merkel] that the prospect of us leaving is real. It’s not just sabre-rattling. Germans go in for sabre-rattling an awful lot at the moment. They’re virtually threatening Greece with exit from the euro. They don’t mean it, but they’re talking it up.

“There should be no mutual misunderstanding about this. Cameron doesn’t want us to leave … but [he] may well face the prospect where the people tell [him] to leave.

Davis McAllister, the German MEP for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, was interviewed at the same time as Davis. According to McAllister, the meeting was not primarily about British concerns with the EU. However, he indicated that Germany wanted the UK to remain in the EU while acknowledging that reform needed to happen.

“Germans are ready to talk to London about British demands in a fair and reasonable manner. But we’re very clear that we are the UK’s partner in Europe and we are interested that the United Kingdom stays in the European Union,” he said.

“No reasonable politician can ignore the fact that over the next five years we will have to find solutions for the political concerns of the United Kingdom. We have to because we want to keep the United Kingdom within the European Union.

“I, and many others, will work for a fair deal with Britain, but it must be a deal that accepts the specificities of the United Kingdom in the EU on the one hand, while allowing the member states of the EU to integrate further.”

Discussing the consequences of a “Brexit” for Ireland, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Ireland will support changes in the EU if it means that Britain will remain a member.

Mr Kenny, speaking at a foreign affairs council in Dublin, said on 12 January that Britain and Ireland’s “shared EU membership has played an immensely important role in strengthening relations between our two islands, not least in creating the environment for business links to flourish and as a force for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.”

At the same time, Mr Kenny indicated that Ireland would be “candid if we are presented with proposals that we do not see as achievable or desirable.”

Kenny also raised concerns about the effects of a potential UK exit on Ireland:

“The Government’s position is clear and unequivocal: we want the UK to remain in the EU.

“This is clearly in our national interest, and in the wider European interest,” he said.

In another article, one UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson stated:

“There is a widespread—and growing—recognition that the EU can’t continue as it is. There are many voices around Europe saying that this requires treaty change.

“But we don’t need to wait: many of the reforms we seek on trade, on regulation and on deepening the single market, can be made right now.”

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