Brexit will aggravate EU problems

The United Kingdom on Wednesday started the clock on two years of negotiations to withdraw from the European Union. Britain’s top envoy to European Union Tim Barrow hand-delivered a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, triggering final split. Tusk has said that he would respond with a draft negotiating guidelines within 48 hours. Leaders of remaining 27 nations would meet on April 29 to finalize their negotiating platform.
British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50, which repealed the four decades of integration with its neighbors. Britain filed for the divorce at a time when Europe is facing unprecedented challenges to its identity and its place in the world.
The divorce will redefine the country’s relationship with its largest trading partner and bring to an end decades of deepening political integration on the continent.
Britain’s EU divorce has drawn mixed reactions. For Britons who voted to leave the bloc in a referendum nine months ago, it was a time for celebration. They called it the greatest moment in modern British history as leaving EU would restore the parliament and make the country a ‘sovereign nation.’
Theresa May called it a historic moment from which there can be no turning back. She said the government acted on the democratic will of the British people. On the other hand, Tusk tweeted that after nine months the UK has delivered. President of the EU’s executive Commission Jean-Claude Juncker called Britain’s departure a failure and a tragedy. The loss of a major member is destabilizing for the EU, which is battling to contain a tide of nationalist and populist sentiment and faces unprecedented antipathy from the new resident of the White House.
But for ‘remain’ campaigners, it was time to fight for a divorce settlement trying not lose what they availed with EU membership.
Theresa May is also under growing demand for Scotland referendum on independence. Scotland’s parliament has already voted to back First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a referendum within two years.
May’s aim is to discuss the split and commercial ties with EU simultaneously. Britain wants free trade, but says it will restore control of immigration, ending the right of EU citizens to live and work in Britain. But the major stumbling block is the rights of EU citizens residing in the UK as well as the Britons living in the bloc, the border between two Irelands and trade rules with banks threatening to shift staff from London if they don’t get time to adjust.
In a bid to maintain bargaining power, May warns that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” But EU officials have categorically said that they would not allow May cherry-pick EU benefits.
The entire negotiation process is going to be very complex and daunting. It is going to be very tumultuous for Britain. Though the UK government is confident about a close and friendly new relationship rest of European countries, it would be premature to reach to any conclusion how the Brexit negotiation plays out. But Brexit will certainly aggravate the frictions among EU members.