After
Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, its leaders
were in a panic. It was mired in a migration crisis and anti-Europe,
populist forces were gaining. Britain’s decision seemed to herald the
start of a great unraveling.
The very prospect of losing a country like Britain, considered so pragmatic and important in the world, is deeply wounding for the EU.
Two years later, as Britain’s exit from the bloc, or Brexit, looks increasingly messy
and self-destructive, there is a growing sense, even in the populist
corners of the continent, that if this is what leaving looks like, no,
thank you.
Nothing has brought the European Union together quite as much as Britain’s chaotic breakdown. “A
country is leaving and has gotten itself into a right old mess, making
itself ridiculous to its European partners,” said Rosa Balfour, a senior
fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels.
The
challenges facing Europe — low growth, eurozone governance, migration,
debt, border security and populism — have by no means gone away. Nor has
Europe found consensus on how to deal with them.
The very prospect of losing a country like Britain, considered so pragmatic and important in the world, is deeply wounding for the EU.
But
on the whole, while all parties will suffer with Brexit, particularly
in the event of a so-called “no deal” departure, analysts tend to agree
that the European Union, which will remain the world’s largest market,
is likely to fare far better than Britain.
