Abstract
The British decision to leave the EU in the 23 June 2016 referendum was the unexpected outcome of a multifaceted crisis. It can be explained by a mixture of specifically British factors and others, which are present across many European countries, raising potentially lethal problems for the cohesion and future of the EU. A year after the referendum, though, the EU has kept its unity and limited the risk of contagion. It has attempted to present a coherent plan not only to deal with Brexit but also to take the opportunity to strengthen the Eurozone and European defence.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Quoted in the Financial Times, 4 October 2015.
- 3.
“‘Deserters will not be welcome back’, Juncker warns UK voters”, Financial Times, 20 May 2016.
- 4.
“UK must pay price for Brexit, says François Hollande”, The Guardian, 7 October 2016; “Angela Merkel: Theresa May cannot ‘cherry pick’ Brexit terms”, The Independent, 6 December 2016.
- 5.
“UK will pay huge price for prioritising migration curbs, says Dutch PM”, The Guardian, 19 January 2017.
- 6.
Quoted in “No special favours for UK in Brexit deal, says Maltese Prime Minister”, The Guardian, 29 January 2017.
- 7.
- 8.
‘Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban praises Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ nationalism’, The Independent, 23 January 2017, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/donald-trump-nationalist-hungary-pm-viktor-orban-praise-america-first-a7542361.html.
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Schnapper, P. (2017). Brexit and the Risk of European Disintegration. In: da Costa Cabral, N., Renato Gonçalves, J., Cunha Rodrigues, N. (eds) After Brexit. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66670-9_5
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