Would it really be that great for the EU, though? After all, the UK was never particularly fond of the European idea generally and further integration (i.e. federalization) in particular, to put it mildly. My biggest fear is the UK might go back blocking just about anything that goes beyond simple trade deals.
So, imho, the EU would be better off it the UK simply rejoined the common market, but not the political union. We have more than enough dissent, as is.
Yes, it would. Both benefit from it. That’s why the UK and EU are (mostly silently and in the background) getting closer again, and why a number of EU politicians are making remarks like this.
And the UK didn’t block everything other than trade deals. In fact the UK didn’t really block much at all if you look into it.
They didn’t use their veto more than other large economies, and the likes of Poland and Hungary blocked more. And let’s not get into the Netherlands, Ireland, and others blocking attempts at closing tax loopholes.
It’s not like the EU has seen massive structural changes since it was “unshackled” from the UK, is it?
Tbf, I couldn’t find a source for the UK’s voting behavior (and I was being a bit hyperbole). And it’s true tht we haven’t really seen any reforms since then. The EU has many different countries that want different things at times and some (including mine) are incredibly apathetic.
But that is actually the reason why I do not want the UK to rejoin. Structural reforms are incredibly slow and hard as is. Let’s take a common European army for example; afaik a majority would be in favor of it. A member of the European parliament that I once talked with also talked about widespread support within the official bodies of the union. And still, things are slow, though not stagnant; i.e. Germany and the Netherlands have begun integrating their armies into ond.
And all of what has changed i this regard, happened after Brexit (or the referendum, anyway). The UK never had to block votes, because with the UK, any attempts towards a common European army would have been struck down long before anybody got to vote on it. Heck, Eurosceptics loved to use ideas like these to paint Brussels as the boogeyman.
So I’m still not convinced that a full rejoin would offer significant advantages over a Norway type of deal for the EU.
Of course it would offer something significant. Like it or not, the UK is the second largest economy in Europe, likely has more soft power worldwide than any other EU country, has some of the world’s best scientific institutions, etc.
Even just the UK’s contribution to the EU budget would be a huge positive.
And of course there are massive benefits for the UK as well - way easier trade, not having to duplicate a lot of EU laws creating needless bureaucracy, slowing of the UK’s gradual decline on the world stage as the Asian economies becomes more prominent, etc.
If it offered nothing then we wouldn’t have numerous EU politicians making comments like this very article details, no?
