The UK Brexit debate has consistently misread the EU’s aims, and its determination to pursue them. We are now at risk of doing so over the negotiating endgame. No deal, if it happens, will be a process – not an event – managed by the EU to their negotiating advantage, just as the article 50 talks have been throughout. The difference is that a no-deal process would be much shorter and more brutal for the UK.
The Brexit debate in the UK often misses the very modern political motivations of the EU27. Yes, they are determined to defend the rules-based single market, built up through decades of compromise. But leading EU member states have a political aim closer to home; they must defeat the idea of a painless Brexit. Otherwise, they fear, the European parliament elections next June will be dominated by their own populist opponents, who will claim that they, too, can shed the obligations but keep the benefits of EU membership.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Ogx187
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