“Brexit”

Just after the Second World War ended, Europe was left in shambles to say the very least. Something needed to be done to ensure that this sort of thing would never happen again and to restore peace and trust between the tightknit and neighboring countries. France and Germany came up with a plan to ensure that the two countries would never go to war with each other again. Before they knew it in 1950 there were six different countries that wanted in on the deal to share coal and steel resources between them. Since then the EU has grown to 28 countries, but if all goes according to plan with “Brexit” it will soon be 27.

“Brexit” is a term that was coined combining the two words “Britain” and “exit”. Simply put, the UK wants to and is pulling out of the European Union (EU). This was brought on by several experts within the British parliament that believe that the EU was holding them back. The EU has set treaties in place that allow for less border control, less costing trade agreements, along with having a single currency to be used between the member countries.

In 2015 Britain contributed about 12.6% of the EU’s budget, which turned out to be around 8.5 billion Euros. This is the third highest total contribution, only trailing Germany’s 21.36% and France’s 15.7%. Despite being the third largest contributor to the budget, Britain is the EU’s largest trading partner.

England took a vote on Brexit and voted 53.4 to 46.6 in favor of the exit from the union. Wales also was in favor of leaving the union. Scotland and Northern Ireland were against leaving, Scotland was 62% to 38% in favor of staying and Northern Ireland was 55.8% to 44.2% in favor of staying. Since this referendum Britain got a new Prime Minister, her name is Theresa May. The old Prime Minister David Cameron was against leaving the EU, as is May. Cameron resigned from his position after he lost the referendum.

Experts believed that the removal of the UK from the European Union would cause their economy to brutally collapse, predicting housing prices to fall and a spike in unemployment. They were correct but only to a degree. The pound (Britain’s currency) took a hit after the referendum showing it to have 15% less value than the US Dollar and 10% less value than the Euro. But the foreshadowing of the impending doom was correct in that the UK’s economy has grown 1.8% in the year 2016. Inflation has grown a little as well, it has grown to 1.8% which is its highest rate for the past two plus years. Unemployment is on the decline, however, reaching a low of 4.8% which is the lowest total the UK has had in the past 11 years.

So how long will it actually take for the UK to leave the EU? When the EU was formed they wrote a rule that was intended for this exact situation. The relatively short article is titled Article 50 and spells out that the UK has two years to negotiate their removal. While it sounds very easy, the UK has to unpick over 43 years of treaties covering thousands of various topics while being a member of the EU. Also note that this has never been done before, so the negotiators on both sides will just be making this up simply because there is no precedent to follow. Until the two sides can agree on terms the UK will continue to abide by EU rules and regulations until the split is agreed upon, the UK just cannot take part in any decision making processes that take part within the union.

I personally believe that the UK will better off without their membership of the EU. With unemployment already at a staggering low and their economy slowly on the incline I believe this is only the beginning of good things to come. There are undoubtedly going to be hurdles and speed bumps that need to be surpassed and overcame before the official removal takes place in 2019, but after the obstacles are overcame I believe Britain while continue to thrive.