What does Brexit mean for the future of EU integration?

Brexit has exposed and brought to the surface valid arguments for concern against any
further integration into the European Union, whether this involves current member states or
future candidates. Brexit can be seen as the crusading tidal wave for Euroscepticism raising
many concerns, some of which were the main points being pushed for by pro-Brexit
campaigners, during the lead-up to the referendum. One of these issues which have plagued
member states has been the issue of Parliamentary sovereignty which, as many would
argue, is being eroded with the growth of the European Parliament. Another issue Brexit has
presented for any further integration into the European Union is that it has caused a rise in
the popularity of parties that can be identified as being on the political right. These parties
rally under the banner of Nationalism and present their fight as a fight for the preservation of
national identity, strength and unity. But on the other hand, Brexit can also be seen as a
reason for further integration into the European Union, for future candidates and current
member states they’re able to have a clear outline of the dangers of leaving the European
Union and the security of joining it.

To understand what Brexit means for the future of the EU integration, it would be helpful to
understand the basis behind the need for integration within the EU, the structure of the EU
and its origins. The build-up to the creation of the EU could be seen through the creation of
the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 with six signatory nations the biggest of
these being Germany, France and Italy (European Union, 2022). Its goals were to run steel
and coal industries under common management with the aim being that no single country
can viably create weapons of war to use against each other, but also removing the need for
war to meet the demand for resources. This would set the tone for the aims of any further
integration between European states closer ties, cooperation, consolidated aims and prevent
conflict whilst also the pooling and common management of resources into a singular market
to promote and share economic prosperity.

In 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed giving to the creation of the EEC or the European
Economic Community the predecessor to the European Union. Its long-term goal was to
‘Establish an ever closer union between European peoples” (Watts, 2008, pg 19) but more
specifically the EEC stated in article 2 that it was tasked to “promote the harmonious
development of economic activities. A continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in
stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the
states belonging to it” (Watts, 2008, pg 19). Under this objective, the EEC would set out
guidelines of “establishing a customs union” (Watts, 2008, pg 19) with no internal barriers
and a common external tariff (Watts, 2008, pg 19), a “ common agricultural policy ” (Watts,
2008, pg 19), “ free movement of labour and capital” (Watts, 2008, pg 19), developing funds
to assist less developed areas to produce new products and new labour markets (Watts,
2008, pg 19). Even here at this stage, we see the aims of the EEC to be a continuation of
what the ECSC or the European Coal and Steel Community had set out to do, developing
closer ties and a more communal and common market without the specification of there ever
eventually being a “federal outcome” (Watts, 2008, pg 19).
A crucial part of our democracies are the institutions that uphold, enforce and maintain our
democratic privileges and rights. The greatest institutional body into which we pass onto and
instil our power as democratic citizens is our legislative body, for the UK this is Westminster
and the houses of Parliament. Within the UK and most western democratic nations
Parliament is sovereign. Sovereignty itself is, according to Brace, L and Hoffman, J in their
book Reclaiming sovereignty, defined as having “ final and absolute authority ” (Brace and
Hoffman, 2016, pg 18). But as Brace and Hoffman bring about the claim that amongst all the
threats to the “supremacy” or sovereignty of Parliament, “none is more serious than the
challenge presented by the United Kingdom's membership of the European Communities
and now the European Union” (Brace and Hoffman, 2016, pg 18) this would be one of the
leading points for the campaigners advocating for the exit from the European Union that
Parliamentary sovereignty had slowly been “seriously eroded” (Brace and Hoffman, 2016, pg
35). We take a look at a specific example of how Britain's membership within the European
Union and the European Economic Community has slowly led to it losing more and more
legislative power and influence to Brussels by looking at the issues surrounding the common
fisheries policies. In 1988 Parliament passed the Merchant Shipping act of 1988 which
prevented non-British nationals from taking advantage of the European Common Fisheries
policy at the expense of British fishermen(Brace and Hoffman, 2016, pg 34). This act was
passed in response to Spanish fishermen registering themselves as British to use fishing
areas around the British Isles (Brace and Hoffman, 2016, pg 34). The European
Communities Act of 1972 had made explicit that “Community law was superior to UK law”
(Brace and Hoffman, 2016, pg 31) which allowed the European courts to side with the
Spanish fisherman, which meant that the UK had to “ accept the supremacy of community
law” and that it “must take precedence over the 1988 Merchant shipping act” (Brace and
Hoffman, 2016, pg 35) in addition the UK was also charged with compensating for any
losses sustained by the Spanish fisherman during the enforcement of the 1988 Act (Brace
and Hoffman, 2016, pg 35). The European Communities Act had set the relationship
between Westminster and the EEC the act had made apparent that the membership of the
EEC and later the EU had meant and become something more than what it had previously
set out to do in the EEC’s article 2 like Britain, members within the European Union/EEC
were able to experience the development of a “European superstate” (Brace and Hoffman,
2016, pg 35) which had evergrowing authority over its member states at the expense of their
sovereignty. This presents us with the perspective that Brexit, for the future of the EU
integration, has highlighted an interesting point for current member states and future
candidates, no longer were the European Union a means for promoting “the harmonious
development of economic activities. A continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in
stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the
states belonging to it” (Watts, 2008, pg 19) European states may now need to weigh up
whether they wish to become apart of something in which they may belong to something
bigger than themselves at the expense of losing more and more of their ability to act
independently and be sovereign.

Brexit has built momentum for Eurosceptics and Nationalists, having a political movement to
rally around to start their own to push their agendas. Nationalists and Eurosceptics strongly
oppose the growth and any further integration of their Nation states into the European Union.
Jeffries describes nationalism as going beyond “loving your country to include the belief that
your country is better and more important than any other country or group” (Jeffries, 2019,
pg4) to the extent where you believe that your national interests should always come
first (Jeffries, 2019, pg 4). Madeline Le-Pen and her policies and agendas can be
attributed to being Nationalist in nature and are described as having “ Sovereignist,
protectionist, nationalist” agendas (Henley and Rankin, 2022). Amongst her policies, Le-
Pen wanted to implement a referendum that would establish “ national priority for
French citizens in employment, social security benefits and public housing” (Henley and
Rankin, 2022) and also retain control over its immigration (Henley and Rankin, 2022).
She strongly maintains an “anti-European integration” stance whilst in addition having
“anti-Islamic” views (Karner and Monika Weronika Kopytowska, 2017, pg 117). Whilst
her ideas on prioritising certain groups over others re-affirm Jeffries' take on nationalists
believing in the interests of one group are more important than others (Jeffries, 2019,
pg4) Le-Pen's stances may have been considered taboo at one point however popularity
and that of nationalist parties within Europe are quite clear to see. In 2014 Le-Pen
gained a record vote share of 25% gaining 24 of the 74 Parliament seats in the
European Parliamentary elections (Karner and Monika Weronika Kopytowska, 2017, pg
117). In 2017 Le-Penn’s Nationalist proposals gained her a 33% vote share in the
presidential election (POLITICO, 2020) with it rising to 41% in 2022 (POLITICO, 2020)
attributed to her steady increase in popularity. Whilst Euroscepticism and Nationalism as
a whole cannot be attributed to Brexit, Brexit can be seen as a catalyst that spurred and
fueled political movements into the political mainstream and gained popularity through
their own agendas. This is an indication that for many, integration within the European
Union is not the way forward and that their relationship with this supernational political
and economic union needs to be amended or outright disregarded.

Finally, it can be argued that Brexit has helped the current relationship between member
states and the prospects of any state integration within the European Union through the
clear examples of political and economic instability leaving the European union causes.
One of the original goals of the European Union’s predecessor which it passed on to its
successor can be seen in article 2 “promote the harmonious development of economic
activities. A continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated
raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the states belonging to it”
(Watts, 2008, pg 19) the establishment of “ a customs union” (Watts, 2008, pg 19) without
any internal economic barriers and the free movement of labour and capital (Watts, 2008, pg
19) within which would later be known as the Schengen Area and other economic policies.
The importance that the European Union played in aiding the UK economy cannot be
understated and the economic relationship between the UK and the European Union can not
be claimed as one-sided for example through EU investments between 2007 and 2013 over
70,000 jobs were created in the span of these 6 years alone (Liddle and Shutt, 2020, pg 58)
with overall investment from EU countries being accounted for £453 billion (Liddle and Shutt,
2020, pg 60). Thus one of the many impacts caused directly after leaving the economic and
political instability similar to the one faced in the UK currently, as of 2022 Brexit has caused
an overall shrink of the economy by 5.5%, investment to fall by 11% and goods trade to fall
by 7% (Forrest, 2022) and economic mismanagement in attempting to encourage
investment and curb the negative effects of the economy led the Pound to drop to its lowest
in 37 years (Partington, 2022) and the shortest Prime Minster tenure of 49 days. Thus this
provides a different perspective on what Brexit means for the future of integration within the
European Union, in the sense that onlookers will see the sense of political and economic
chaos that awaits them as its very difficult to predict the economic effects of leaving an
economic and political structure that the European Union provides and the dependency it
causes through the benefits it brings. So it may bring about the need for even the strongest
eurosceptics to have some form of cooperation with the EU in terms of any further
integration.

To conclude, in answering what Brexit mean for the future of EU integration we can see
varied results, on one hand, Britains membership within the EU and some of its
arguments for leaving have shone a light on what the European Union is becoming, its
step away from something predominantly economic and its step towards becoming
something more politically dominating. States will now have to weigh up whether they
believe in state sovereignty and power within their national assembly or if they believe in
a greater European identity. Brexit has also popularised Nationalism and the right, it has
built momentum for those disillusioned by the European idea and has built the case for
movements to form where their relationship with Europe should be taken in for review
and either amended or outright disregarded. But for others, Brexit has shown the risks
and instability that can occur from leaving a political and economic structure on which
your state has become heavily reliant and dependent. It has disillusioned and
romanticised the idea of “taking back control” and made real the actual drawbacks of
prioritising sovereignty and independence over political and economic cooperation.

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