Rejecting the European Union, British voters decided to exit the once 28 nation common economic bloc, started Nov. 1, 1993 when former French President Francois Mitterand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl signed the Maastricht Agreement in the Netherlands forming the Brussels-based European Union. EU officials can no longer boast London as its most populous capital. While the EU can boast of the world’s second largest GDP at $16.2 trillion, with Britain’s $2.85 trillion GDP subtracted, leaving the EU at $13.35 trillion, it’s far behind the U.S. GDP at $17.937 trillion. Britain never really fit into the EU, only reluctantly joining under pressure in 1993. British Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected the common currency when asked to join the euro Jan. 1, 1999, perhaps hinting at today’s end of Britain’s membership in the EU. Today’s U.K. vote to exit the EU is a slap in the face to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU’s Mideast refugee architect.
Merkel went over the deep end pressuring EU countries to take thousands of Mideast refugees, claiming it’s the EU’s duty to provide safe haven for poverty-stricken and war-ravaged immigrants from the Mideast and North Africa. Some analysts speak of the Brexit vote as proof of the U.K’s growing xenophobia, knowing full well, Britain’s always been home to bountiful foreigners. Today’s vote spoke volumes about how British voters view the monstrous EU bureaucracy, growing into the world’s largest institution. With the European Council, Council of the European Union, European Parliament, European Commission, Court of Justice of the European Union, European Central Bank and European Court of Auditors, the EU bureaucracy expanded out-of-control. All the promises of economic prosperity of the EU didn’t pan out for most EU member states, with possible exceptions of Germany, France, Belgium and Netherlands.
Two years after forming the EU, it ratified the Schengen Agreement, passport free travel and work zone for EU members March 26, 1995, allowing EU members to travel and work in countries of their choice. While it all seemed idyllic, it didn’t take long for employment to get tight, especially in Britain viewed by many immigrants as more hospitable. “We take note of the British people’s decision with regret. There is no doubt that this is a blow to Europe and to the European unification process,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the EU’s primary architect of the Mideast and North African refugee resettlement program. Merkel takes no responsibility for driving the U.K out of the EU, making conditions intolerable to a majority of EU states. “What the consequences of this would be . . . would depend on whether we—the other 27 member states of the EU—prove to be willing and able to draw quick and simple conclusions from the referendum in Great Britain,” said Merkel.
Merkel sees no problem with the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank controlling the currency—and debt—of at least 19 Eurozone countries dependent on the ECB. While Blair rejected the Eurozone for Britain, it was clear the EU was focused on more than on a common currency or economic markets. When Merkel talks of “quick and simple conclusions,” she’s oblivious that the overwhelming message directed to her: Stop pressuring EU members to take more Mideast and North African refugees. “Never forget that the idea of European unity was an idea of peace,” said Merkel, expressing her personal views growing up in East Germany in the dark shadow a Nazi past. Merkel’s need to right Germany’s past from tearing Europe apart into today’s humanitarian sanctuary for the world’s downtrodden blinded her common sense. Watching Islamic terrorism strike London, Paris, Brussels and, most recently, the U.S. influenced British voters.
Whatever the upheaval in world financial markets, the EU’s economic problems won’t go away anytime soon. Faced with floods of refugees from war-torn Middle East and North Africa, Merkel’s approach threatens more fallout in the EU. EU states must “calmly and prudently analyze and evaluate the situation, before making the right decision together,” said Merkel, announcing an emergency meeting Monday in Berlin with French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and EU Council President Donald Tusk. Tusk warned June 13 that the Brexit vote would “destroy European civilization,” pushing more EU skeptics into the leave camp. With a $160 billion budget and 170,000 employees, the U.K. contributed $13 billion to the EU, only receiving $4.5 billion in EU benefits. EU officials, like Tusk, tell the U.K. how much the U.K. benefits from EU membership. British voters said no to a net loss of $8.5 billion to the EU.
With the U.K. bailing out of the EU, officials have a lot to think about in terms of preventing other disgruntled EU members from following suit. Last year’s $131 billion Greek bailout sent shockwaves through the EU, with Merkel, Hollande and others willing to bend-over-backwards to keep Greece in the EU. Britain’s exit opens a can of worms for other EU countries finding themselves squeezed financially with little end in sight. “We don’t have an answer to all the questions that have arisen” from today’s exit vote, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, careful not to criticize Merkel. With British Prime Minister David Cameron stepping down, it’s a matter of time before Merkel gets the ax. Her open door policies contributed to Islamic terrorism washing up on European soil. Lambasting other EU countries for refusing to take Mideast refugees, Merkel contributed to the Brexit and maybe now her own early retirement.
