Angela Merkel to David Cameron: no objections to you exiting the EU

For the first time ever, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that the UK might exit the EU, as reported by German magazine Der Spiegel. The publication states that Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron are quarrelling over restrictions for EU workers who want to work in the UK. Allegedly, Merkel said that it would be better to see the British exiting the union than to agree to the restrictions demanded by the British government.

According to a BBC broadcast, the British are unhappy with influx of workers from other European countries and have proposed to introduce quotas for migrant workers with low qualifications. The UK government currently has no comment on this information. However, information about the nation’s possible exit from the EU is nothing new. Let us recall that Cameron said on October 27 that his country would not pay an extra EU bill worth 2.1 billion euros. He also noted that these requirements clearly harmed efforts to have Britain remaining as part of the EU.

We asked German political scientist Andreas UMLAND to comment on a possible quarrel between Merkel and Cameron, and in particular, on likely consequences for Europe of Britain’s exit from the EU.

“Euroscepticism has been on the rise in the UK lately. It is expressed, in particular, via calls to hold a referendum on the exit and the nation failing to pay its contributions to the EU budget in full. The issue of freedom of movement within the union has become another talking point for the Eurosceptics. All of them raise fundamental issues of European integration and, therefore, there is a conflict between countries that support it and those who have doubts about it. Germany has always promoted European integration and was the driving force behind the creation of the EU, the introduction of the euro and the like.

“I do not think that the movement regulations can be easily amended unilaterally. The freedom of movement is a fundamental idea of the united Europe. If the nations will stop adhering to it, the very name of the EU will lose its meaning.

“Should the UK referendum on the EU exit have a majority voting for it, it will exit the union. This is the worst-case scenario. The UK’s status will probably become like that of Norway or Switzerland. De facto, it will remain part of economic and legal space of the EU without being its member.

“All British skepticism about the EU deals with the fundamentals and questions the very meaning of the UK’s membership of the EU.

“The collapse of the EU is discussed too much. This is a scenario that goes far too far. We must remember that the history of the EU has always been associated with crises and controversies. The integration was delayed on multiple occasions, but it still continued. If the UK exits the EU, it will become weaker. However, the UK cannot exit the EU de facto, as it has become, to all intents and purposes, part of this space. This idea seems absurd to me, because the British economy is fully integrated into the wider European one, and it cannot exit the EU without running enormous losses itself.”