A Year On, What's Your View On The EU?

Everyone has different views on the EU. What's your answer to these five questions about the EU?

		Yes	No
1	Do you want the UK to collaborate economically with our European neighbours?
2	Do you want the UK to collaborate on non-political areas such as Euratom and Open Skies?
3	Do you think MEPs are necessary for the UK?
4	Do you want the UK to adopt the Euro in place of Pound Sterling?
5	Do you want the UK to become a state within the United States of Europe

 
If your answer is "Yes" to all five questions, then you are clearly pro-EU.

If your answer is "No" to all five, then you are the hardest of Brexiters. But most want a trade deal of some kind.

Most people are likely to have a mix of "Yes" and "No".  I would expect most to say "Yes" to questions one and two, but "No" to three four and five. Did you?  Some of these people will have voted Remain, some Leave.  Depends on other factors, such as how they regarded the pain of transition.

It struck me recently that I am not aware of any single issue on which our MEPs have voted. The UK media don't bother to report votes with any prominence, either because the votes are unimportant and/or the UK public isn't interested. In any case power on practical matters appears to be in the European Commission in Brussels.  The actual power structure is set out in this BBC article, a little out of date in detail but still valid in principles.

PROPOSAL

Subject to doing some polling, it looks like the majority of the country would have a mixture of "Yes" and "No" answers, and the majority would support some form of #HalfBrexit.  Here is a specific proposal called the "EEAplus HalfBrexit":

• The UK would join an upgraded 'EEAplus', being the current European Economic Area upgraded to:
• Boost the UK's involvement in decisions, and 
• Add any EU trading aspects not currently covered by the EEA agreements
• The UK would otherwise leave the EU, including no need for MEPs
• But the UK would retain collaboration in key non-political pan-European initiatives that do not need the UK to be EU members, such as the Open Skies initiative for air travel

Freedom of Movement (FOM) of People, at least of workers, would need to be retained. Crucially a recent poll  found that the UK electorate put staying in the Single Market with FOM above restricting FOM by over two to one. The proposal arises from that preference.

The EU would need to support the "EEAplus HalfBrexit" idea too.  It solves the problem they have with wanting to protect their business with the UK, whilst not giving the UK benefits without the obligations.  Up to now the UK approach has been "have cake and eat it", which is never going to get the necessary support from the various EU institutions involved.

The proposal would also solve the three key issues in the early part of the negotiations, as well as a number of other benefits:

1. Irish Border which would continue to be open as at present
2. Rights of EU27 citizens in UK and Brits in EU27 countries
3. Settlement of 'divorce bill, covered by new annual contributions

Interested?  A full outline is given here.