PERPETUAL NEGOTIATIONS AND THEIR POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS: THE BREXIT CASE

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland played an important role in the European integration process from Winston Churchill's idea of creating the “United States of Europe”, to becoming the first Member State in history to withdraw from the European Union. Ever since the first attempts of joining the Communities, their membership has met with reservations by the founding countries and mistrust regarding the British objectives towards the future development of the Community. The British relations with the EU have been uniquely marked with constant pursuit of better economic and political conditions of membership. Over the years, as the Government in charge of the British Parliament changed, the United Kingdom has presented with different requirements for their continued permanence and substantial budgetary contributions. These renegotiations have been repeated several times during the fortyseven years of British membership, always requesting for additional concessions. The achieved agreements were twice associated with a national referendum to confirm British membership within reformed Community. However, the two referenda led to opposite effects: the first one validated the recommendation of the Government to stay in the EU; while the second one ended with Britain leaving the European Union, against the official Governments suggestions, leading to many years of uncertainty, damaging the economy, negatively influencing working conditions, British currency, with potential to destroy the integrity of the United Kingdom. The aim of the study is to analyze both referenda results and the renegotiations of the membership conditions that led to them, by selecting the critical issues in the negotiating strategies, that were obstructing the agreements between the United Kingdom and the European Union, and by comparing several political agreements achieved by the United Kingdom in the process of negotiations at the correspondent stages of their membership within the European Union to demonstrate their political and economic implications. The research examined British, French, and American confidential diplomatic documents from the national archives, formal publications produced by Her Britannic Majesty’s Government and those published by the European Institutions, as well as journals, letters and newspaper articles, documentaries, reports, and social media announcements made on the official accounts in different languages, including English, Italian, French, and Polish. In conclusion, this study shows how the national interest of the singular EU members does not always comply with the European agenda and how it overcomes any Communitarian interest. Furthermore, the research points out how the use of referenda on the membership cannot be justified as a leverage mean for negotiating the changes to the membership terms determined by the European Treaties.