To Brexit Or Not To Brexit

With the threat of a Brexit looming ahead, it is worth revisiting Britain’s past relationship with the Eurozone which has been nothing but rocky from the very start.

The European Union became a geo-political entity in 1993 and consisted then of six members. It introduced its new currency, the euro in January 1, 1999, Originally, the euro was used for exchanges between countries within the union while people within the countries continued to use their own currencies. Within three years, however, the euro was established as an everyday currency and replaced the domestic currencies of many member states.

1973 Referendum

A referendum was put to the British citizens and with its overwhelmingly positive results, the then Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath allowed Britain agreed to join the EEC in 1973, after Charles de Gaulle’s resignation in 1969.

Britain’s past relationship with the Eurozone… has been nothing but rocky from the very start.

Since then the relationship has flowed and ebbed, mostly based on Europe’s economies and how these countries viewed their British partners. When Europe did poorly, the marriage tended to be at its strongest. When Germany and its followers were doing well, it lost strength.

This roller coaster affair is not at all surprising as Britain’s entry into the European conglomerate was done only half-heartedly at the time and the UK has maintained its distance as much as possible over the years.

Well before the European Union was formed, in one of his speeches, Winston Churchill proposed “a kind of United States of Europe” as a way of moving past the war years, but he did not envisage Britain as part of it. Churchill said at the time, “We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not combined. We are interested and associated but not absorbed,” and this line of thinking has defined Britain’s ambivalent attitude to Europe ever since.

The last referendum for staying in the EEC took place immediately after the U.K.’s General Election in May, 2015 wherein the U.K. voted to continue the relationship, setting aside fears of a possible Brexit.