Daily Times

Officially, the UK remains separated from the EU on January 31, albeit a complete withdrawal process will take further negotiations for a few more months. Though the bonds of 47 years of relationship between the EU and the UK have after all lost their historical moorings, yet for both sides, the choice to part with each other has remained a furious task -inviting manifold policy challenges ahead.

Actually, Brexit was supposed to have been originally taken place on 29 March 2019, but the deadline was extended twice after MPs rejected the deal negotiated by Theresa May, the then British premier.Many Conservative MPs and the DUP (the government’s then ally in Parliament) were unhappy with the backstop – arguing that the UK could remain trapped in the arrangement for years with no way out. “The European Union is seen by many as a model. And Britain must be part of that model.” The German-British philosopher Ralf Dahrendorf wrote these words in frustration in 1995 when a previous Conservative UK government found itself in turmoil over Britain’s relationship with the EU. Dahrendorf was unusually placed in that he could forensicallysee Britain’s relationship with the EU from many sides. Hence, he could see how EU membership was being interpreted by some as a loss of sovereignty via transnationalism in a post-imperial nation. But as a refugee from Nazi Germany who had been welcomed by Britain, Dahrendrof also understood the EU’s crucial importance as the harbinger of cosmopolitanism-curbing the rise of authoritarianism in continental Europe. But unfortunately with UK’s parting with the European Union, the epic dreams ofDahrendrof and Desmond Dinan (the author of the most celebrated book on the European Integration, ‘Ever Close Union’) seem faded.

Although Britain had been providing necessary cooperation for the Berlin-London-Paris triangle when it came to supporting more economic competition but also supporting Berlin’s views of taking the EU’s Central and Eastern European members seriously, in that sense, Brexit does desperately leave a gap

Some of the Britons are jubilating but others are in despair. Yet for many British people, it is simply a sigh of relief. And yet, fairly speaking, all sides, albeit, should have bold courage to recognize the reality that Britain leaves with an open national wound full of the pathos of UK’s EU- nostalgia The referendum vote and the general election have transformed the fate of EU-Britain relationship. Britain’s departure from the EU was inevitable. “A geopolitical and geoeconomic rivalry seems to start – even if they couch the relationship using nice, friendly, diplomatic language,” said Pascal Lamy, the EU’s former trade commissioner and subsequent chief of the World Trade Organization. “This will put both sides under pressure.” After 31 January, the UK has entered a transition period with the EU– allowing both sides to negotiate the modus operandi of their future relationship.As we know this is due to last until 31 December 2020 and during this time the UK will still be bound by the European Community.Laws.

While highlighting UK’s role in the EU affairs, Frans Timmermans, one of the EU Commission’s executive vice-presidents, said it had arguably proven to be the most effective operator in steering Europe’s economic development. “In shaping EU policy, the United Kingdom has been spectacularly successful – at least in the period I can oversee, which is the last 30 years,” he told the Financial Times last month. But a sane and insightful analysis given by a British historian Jeremy Black, a professor at Exeter University and author of Britain and Europe: A Short History, impartially suggests that “Britain has always viewed itself as a semi-detached member of the E.U,” Black says, citing both the British Isles’ geographical separation and the “outward-looking” legacy of imperial ties to countries like the U.S. and Australia as reasons for that mindset. That semi-detachment may be about to become a lot more pronounced.

Factually, in broad terms, European publics seem to have been supporting their leaders in wanting a good relationship with the UK but thinking that the EU should not compromise on fundamental principles in pursuit of this. That said, Brexit is widely seen as also having weakened the European Union.Again, there are significant variations across countries. According to a survey, the states most likely to feel that Brexit has weakened the EU are Hungary (74 per cent), Greece (73 per cent), Poland (69 per cent) and Spain (67 per cent). Whereas, the states least likely to think that Brexit has weakened the EU are France (46 per cent), Austria (51 per cent) and Germany (52 per cent). However, in no country does the number who feel the EU has been strengthened by Brexit reach more than 10 per cent.

Needless to say, a gradual tussle between Britain’s Eurosceptics and EU’s Europhiles remains one of the root causes that paved the way for Brexit. Although Britain had been providing necessary cooperation for the Berlin-London-Paris triangle when it came to supporting more economic competition but also supporting Berlin’s views of taking the EU’s Central and Eastern European members seriously, in that sense, Brexit does desperately leave a gap. Though apparently EU shifts the centre of gravity toward Berlin-not toward Paris–advocating that geographical and geostrategic locations of the UK and Germany currently influence each other.As for the UK, whether– Brexit remains successful or not – will largely depend on a great deal on the economic implications -whilst leaving the EU and whether trade agreements with others might fuel the UK’s economic growth. In addition, it will not be an easy task for Britain to distance itself from the growing pivot of cosmopolitan Europe. Yet for Washington, the most pivotal effect of Brexit on US-conceived interests could be through its impact on European cohesion. However, as for the EU’s position, however, is clear: If the U.K. wants to trade with the single market without tariffs and quotas, EU standards in the areas of health and safety, environmental protection, or labour law-must rightly be respected.

Foreseeably, the year 2020 will be marked by negotiations on the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU. And obviously, if no agreement is finally concluded, the Eurocrats’ designated transitional phase (through which practically nothing will basically change in everyday life) will end— in a very hard Brexit. Despite theUK’s parting with the EU, it appears logical to say that it won’t be the end of Britain’s old tussle with its European identity. Resultantly, both the European Union and the UK will have to be facing a catch-22 situation for a long time giving the impression that they will be pining for each other while futuristically chartering their policies and actions. Nonetheless, the post-Brexit European Union is likely to undergo some upheaval tasks in terms of its security and foreign policy, its enlargement, its community law, the impact on its growing economy and the climate change policy, and most significantly its institutional revitalisation-cum-harmony.

The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan