Hailey Hannigan

Europe’s Rise in Modern Terror

NO-DEAL BREXIT

In November 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether the UK should withdraw from the European Union. By a narrow margin of 51.9% to 48.1% votes in favor of leaving the EU, the UK began its split[1] A year later on March 29, 2017, the UK invoked Clause 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, officially starting the two-year process of formal withdrawal from the European Union. The whole process has been tumultuous and the future of the UK’s relationship with the EU is unclear. It is interesting to note that the “Remain” and “Leave” votes were split among geographic lines, with London and Scotland voting to stay and the more rural areas of England voting to leave.[2]

To understand Brexit and why the United Kingdom’s pending split from the European Union (EU) is causing such a stir, we look to the origins of the EU and their relationship with the UK. After almost half a century of continental war and deep economic depression in the 20th century, Europe desperately needed to rebuild economically. Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, known as the “Original Six”, signed the 1957 Rome Treaty to create the European Economic Community (EEC), allowing for steel and industrial materials to flow tariff-free between those countries. Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined in 1973 with nineteen other European nations joining later, Croatia being the latest to join in 2013 (EUROPA 2018). The EEC morphed into the European Communities, a customs union, in 1965 after the addition of new member countries (Kesselman 2018). This international union was brought about for two main reasons: for economic cohesion and to avoid a continental war as they had just experienced in the World Wars.