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BREXIT: THE LAST CHANCE FOR EUROPE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM?
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forcing him to bring the date for the poll for-
ward to 2016, together with the bulk of the
renegotiation process.
David Cameron’s letter in 2015
On 10 November 2015, the British prime minis-
ter sent a letter to the presidents of the European
Council and the European Commission, and to
the heads of state and heads of government of
the Member States, setting out the four main
areas or “buckets” of Britain’s demands. The
president of the European Council, Donald Tusk
responded in a letter dated 2 February, ad-
dressed to the heads of state and government
of the Member States. The letter contains an
annex with details of the proposed Council de-
cision in response to the issues raised by the
British prime minister, which went on to form
the basis of the agreement reached in Brussels
on 18 and 19 February 2016. The day before
the Council, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Cooperation appeared before the
Congress of Deputies’ Foreign Affairs
Commission (the Mixed Commission for the EU
had yet to be formed by the new government)
to provide advance notice of the content of the
issues to be discussed at the European Council.
The UK’s relationship with Europe
For the majority of the British public, the coun-
try’s relationship with Europe, or “the
Continent”, is based more on culture and his-
tory than politics or trade. The EU is not one of
the main concerns in opinion polls, although
the political relationship with the rest of Europe
has always been extremely complicated. The
conflict goes back to the nature of the EU and
the UK, with roots in geopolitics and certain at-
titudes in the aftermath of the Second World
War (e.g., an isolationist attitude towards the
Continent, strong ties with the Commonwealth,
a false sense of economic superiority and a be-
lief in the ability to go it alone as a result of
having suffered less destruction in the war), in
addition to the birth of European integration
and the role played by the governments of the
time and their historical leaders such as Winston
Churchill and General de Gaulle.
Every British government has expressed, in
one way or another, its limited enthusiasm for
the European project. From the outset, the UK
was not among the founding members of the
project for European integration, and, since its
belated incorporation in 1973, has acted as a
brake on progress towards or discussion of fur-
ther integration. Clear examples can be found
in the rebate demanded and obtained by
Margaret Thatcher in the budget struggle of the
1980s, exemption from Schengen and the deci-
sion to stay out of the euro. The UK has also
opposed the development of the EU’s limited
social dimension; in 1992, it was exempted
from the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty
(although Tony Blair subsequently relinquished
this opt-out in 1997) and, in 2007, the effects
of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights on the
UK were limited by the inclusion of protocol 30
in the Treaty of Lisbon. And it has been reluctant
to participate in the area of freedom, security
and justice. Yet for all this, the United Kingdom
is not the only member of the EU in which
Euroscepticism plays a significant role in nation-
al politics, and regardless of the result of the
referendum on 23 June 2016, the damage done
to the European project may prove to be irre-
versible.