Countries band together to promote trade, defend human rights, protect the environment and repel threats. They sign treaties and join international groups, and each time they do, they agree to give up a bit of independence. That happened in a big way with the creation of the European Union, a common market and global political force forged from the fractious states of Europe.
The question always was, could this extraordinary experiment hold together? Concern about a split is rising as the U.K. heads toward a vote on leaving the bloc it joined in 1973. The way many Brits see it, the trade-offs no longer serve their interests; they prefer the idea of living outside the EU, as Norway and Switzerland do. The country is engulfed in what’s known as the Brexit debate.
The referendum is likely to come down to whether the “remain” camp can better exploit fears of the economic uncertainty of an exit, or the “leave” side can capitalize on worries about excessive migration to the U.K. Champions of EU membership point out that the bloc is the country’s largest export market, and that global companies locate in the U.K. because they can sell into other EU nations without tariffs.
They say the U.K. has global clout without the EU — it has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council — and could negotiate better trade treaties without being held back by EU protectionists.
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