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A decade after the Brexit vote, Europe has moved on even if Britain hasn’t
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove appeared to have no idea what to do once they had won the campaign to leave the EU. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Boris Johnson and Michael Gove appeared to have no idea what to do once they had won the campaign to leave the EU. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images A decade after the Brexit vote, Europe has moved on even if Britain hasn’t In this week’s newsletter: As the EU consolidates, the UK faces renewed debate over the long‑term shape of its relationship with the continent Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here T he morning of 24 June 2016, the day after Britain voted to leave the EU, dawned grey and overcast in Brussels, after a stormy night. As the Guardian’s correspondent in the city, after a few hours’ sleep, I hurried to a breakfast briefing with Conservative MEPs at a smart hotel in the EU quarter. Large trays of eggs, sausages and beans were barely touched, as MEPs fielded questions they couldn’t answer: What happens now? When would the UK leave? Would David Cameron resign? A few hours later he did. In the EU institutions officials broke down in tears. A few top British EU civil servants prepared to resign. Anti-EU populists were jubilant. European leaders feared a domino effect of withdrawals. Sadness, shock and anger swirled on that humid day. The then-president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, told me that EU lawyers were studying whether it was possible to speed up the triggering of article 50 , the then-obscure and untested EU exit clause. Then European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker declared he would like to get Brexit negotiations started “immediately”. The idea of hurrying Britain out the door was soon dropped, but those statements reflected the febrile mood. After the initial shock, the EU rallied. Meeting without the UK for the first time on 29 June 2016, the 27 member states set out their red lines : no negotiations without notification of article 50, no cherrypicking and no splitting the four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, capital – and people. It was a playbook that stood the test of time. The dominos never fell. After three prime ministers, two elections and a long-running parliamentary crisis, the UK finalised its divorce and left. The EU carried on in the face of fundamental challenges: a global pandemic, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the return of Donald Trump, energy price shocks and fierce economic competition from China. Since the Brexit vote, the EU has embarked on common borrowing, along with joint purchases of weapons, gas and vaccines – decisions that would have been almost certainly more difficult with a British prime minister at the table. During its 47 years inside the European project, the UK was often a sceptical voice on deeper EU integration, negotiating opt outs or seeking to block decisions perceived as too federalist. A decade later Britain is heading for its seventh prime minister in 10 y
