What Do You Know About Brexit?
21.03.2022
In 1957, France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of today’s European Union. It was the latest of several attempts to foster economic cooperation between European nations in the wake of World War II.
The UK made it into the club in 1973, but just two years later was on the verge of backing out again.
The new Labor government holds a referendum on whether to stay in the European communities, the result is to remain.
The financial crisis in 2008 and the eurozone economic crisis that followed it intensified suspicion about the EU. The influx of immigrants from poorer EU states and, later, fears over refugees and migrants from places like the Middle East and Africa tapped into darker fears about the future of Britain.
In 2013, Britain’s then-Prime Minister David Cameron promised that if his Conservative Party won elections, he would hold a referendum on whether the UK should remain in the EU or leave.
Turnout for the referendum was 71.8 percent, with more than 30 million people voting. The referendum passed by a slim 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent margin, but there were stark differences across the UK. Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, as did Scotland, leading to renewed calls for another referendum on Scottish independence. England and Wales, however, voted in favor of Brexit.
Cameron resigned, leaving a new prime minister to figure out the divorce. Theresa May got the job.
The EU bought May a little more time, until April 12, 2019. Her attempts to renegotiate the Brexit deal largely failed. Her attempts to get Parliament to finally go along with her deal also failed. May again asked the EU for an extension, and the EU agreed, again. May wanted June, the EU returned with a counter-offer of a “flextension” to October 31, 2019, giving the UK, at maximum, six months to figure it out.
May tried to make a fourth attempt at pushing a Brexit deal through, but faced with unmoving opposition, she resigned in May. Her Conservative Party elected Boris Johnson, who enthusiastically promised the UK would leave, deal or no deal.