Brexit : EU faces a dilemma

Giles MERRITT Friends of Europe It says much of Europe’s introverted political mood these days that the Brexit referendum was seen not only in the UK but around the EU as a basically national issue rather than as one with an EU-wide dimension. The European Commission’s refusal to contribute to the British debate the fact and figures that ‘Remain’ campaigners so evidently lacked was symptomatic of the EU’s short-sightedness. Now Brexit is a reality it clearly risks being a disruptive threat to the whole European Union. Not so much for the « me too » referendums some observers warn that eurosceptics elsewhere in EU may demand, but because Brexit highlights the EU’s weaknesses that member governments preoccupied with their own sovereignty have long preferred to ignore. With the European project now in its sixtieth year, its structures have become seriously flawed and ill-suited to 21st century conditions. The immediate threat created by