Britain Is a Key Member of the EU, and Its Future Lies within the EU - Essay Example

Discussion: The referendum on EU membership is unnecessary. Britain is a key member of the EU, and its future lies within the EU.” Name: Discussion: The referendum on EU membership is unnecessary. Britain is a key member of the EU, and its future lies within the EU.” Course: Tutor: Institution: Date: Introduction Since its establishment, the European Union (EU) has been a major and transformative regional organization in Europe. As a result, apart from a few nations such as Netherlands, its membership is comprised of virtually all European countries. However, in the recent past, major disagreements in its management have occurred. In particular, the UK has been critical of the manner in which the EU operates and has subsequently embarked on a charm offensive process to rally members towards changing the EU charter. However, of the change process fails, the UK has threatened to withdraw from the Union. This has been practicalized by the proposed August 2017 referendum where he citizens will decide to either remain or pull out of the union. However, as this happens, an intensive debate on the rationale and futility of the exercise emerged. This essay offers a critical analysis on the reasons in support and against the UK exit from the EU. Finally, it offers a conclusion on whether the referendum should be held and a withdrawal effected or it should be abandoned altogether. Reasons Why the UK Should Leave the EU First, the essay evaluates the reason promoting the position that the UK should exit and lave the union. Nationalist Interests Both Economically and Politically In the EU decisions are based on the regional welfare. In this regard, prior to the ratification and signing of any trade and other agreements, the union evaluates the implications of such an agreement on all its members. In such a situation, the evaluation is not only on the number of members it is likely to benefit positively, but the potential that it could have on other nations. Therefore, although an agreement could empower the UK, the EU cannot ratify such an agreement if it has the potential of negative impacting on other nations in the region. Therefore, under this approach, the regionalism approach precedes individual national interests (Ford, Goodwin and Cutts, 2012, pp.207-208). Thus, its membership in the union limits its national inertest. Consequently, in the light of its own national interest, the UK should leave the EU. By leaving the EU, Britain will acquire the ability and political freedom to formulate economic agreement and treaties with members both in the EU and outside the EU respectively. Through this trend, it will ensure that all the agreements ad trade treaties in favor of the nation, although could disfavor other EU members are signed and approved by the government. On the political end, an exit from the EU would empower the UK as a regional and international player. Currently, all the international political decisions, such as voting in the UN and other international bodies require that the UK abide and votes as a bloc with other EU nations (Bulmer and Burch, 2005, p.863). Thus, the EU eclipses any potential political influence that the UK could have. As a result, proponents argue that this has been the main reason as to why the UK as apolitical power on the global market has been eclipsed by other nations such as the USA, and Asian tigers such as China and India respectively. On the contrary, through exiting the EU, the UK will gain its international political recognition. As such, it will be at liberty to vote and offer contradicting opinions to other EU members, as well as rally and influence support from other regional nations in international forum. In the long run period, this has the potential to exert and emerge as a global political player. This is because the nation can directly interact with other international and regional bodies such as the UN, BRICS, and the EU among others. Reasons in Support of not Leaving the EU Although as discussed above there is need for the exit, there are arguments that the exit process is irrelevant as the UK relies heavily on the EU for its development and growth sustainability. This section reviews arguments to the effect that the Europeanization, a term for reliance on European partners means that the UK cannot succeed on its own without the union. Creation of Jobs Analyze have argued that the UK has a share of its jobs directly related its membership in the EU. In this case, a majority of the jobs emerge as a result o the trade between the nation and other EU member through the free movement of labour and factors of production across the nation’s agreement. As such, a number of the UK nationals have moved to other EU markets through the eased movement regulations and nation’s entry regulations, reducing the overall unemployment rates in the nation. Moreover, the UK serves as the headquarters of the EU administrative organs. As such, coupled with its economic and infrastructural development, the market has attracted many multinationals that have established their regional headquarters in the UK. This has resulted to the direct creation of employment opportunities in the UK market (Mair, 2007). The exit of the nation from the EU has the potential of directly impacting the availability of these employment opportunities and consequently leading to a high unemployment rate in the nation, low earning levels, and eventual slowed down economic growth rates in the long run period. Although there are no clear statistical reviews to illustrate on the direct number of jobs that would be jeopardize through such an exit, the indications of a mass loss of jobs is already clear. For instance, multinational organisations such as Toyota and Nestle have threatened to withdraw from the market in the event that the UK pulls out of the EU (Katie, Philip, Julian and Arthur, 2015). Thus, this illustration that a pull out of the EU will create increased unemployment in the nation, leading to economic growth decline and the potential of economic challenges in the long run period. Europe Market Access The second reason as to why the scheduled referendum should not happen is the risk of losing the EU market. Currently, as Schmidt (2006, p.23) noted, the UK, as an EU member has direct and unrestricted access to the other EU member markets. This means that the UK can import and export products from and to any of the member nations without legal challenges and restrictions. To this end, an evaluation of the UK economic relations indicates that although it has relations with the Asian and African markets, its main and largest portion of trading partners are in the EU. This is an indirect illustration that the EU member partners contribute the largest proportion of the UK current GDP. However, upon exiting the EU, the UK risks losing out the ease of entry into these markets. In the EU charter, once the UK tenders a formal letter of its intentions to exit, the decision on the terms and conditions of the exit will be dictated by a select committee of which the UK itself will not be a member. As such, there are two potential outcomes of the committee exit terms. First it would be a favorable term of the UK exiting with a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU to access the EU markets as it previously did. However, the second potential outcome would be the UK exiting without an FTA. This would imply that in order to access the EU member States markets, it would require to sign trade agreement with individual members, some of which could be unfavorable to the nation. Consequently, this would have the net effect of reducing its trading capabilities in the region, thus reducing its overall economic interactions in the EU region. As a ripple effect, this would affect economic growth and GDP growth in the UK in the long run period (Smith, 2006, p.162). Based on the above reviews it is apparent that the economic acts of the UK rely on the EU, both in terms of its internal economy parameters, such as employment, as well as eternal relations, such as relations with the EU member State. Hence, the section analysis evidences that exiting the EU would spell doom for the UK economy into the future, risking its failure and negative growth rates into the future Conclusion In summary, this essay analysis offers a discussion on the impending UK withdrawal from the EU referendum due August 2017. On one hand, the analysis evaluated the reasons as to why the referendum should create a way out for the UK form the EU. In this case, it notes that the process would ensure that the UK is able to negotiate with regional and global nations to safeguard its economic interest rather than sacrifice some of the potential economic gains for regional wellbeing. Moreover, the nation will gain increase political influence and recognition as it can develop an individual stand on the global market. On the contrary, it establishes that the job market and employment would be affected as it relies directly to the EU market for the jobs creation. Moreover, it falls at the risk of oozing its largest trading bloc in the EU member nations. Thus, this analysis offers the conclusion that the process is not viable and for its own well being and long term posterity, the UK should remain in the EU. References Bulmer, S. & Burch, M. (2005); The Europeanization of UK Government” Public Administration vol. 83-4, pp. 861-890 Ford, R.; Goodwin, M. and Cutts, D. (2012); “Strategic Eurosceptics and polite xenophobes: Support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2009 European Parliament elections” European Journal of Political Research vol. 51-2, pp. 204-234 Katie, A., Philip, O., Julian B., & Arthur N., (2015); Bexit – what would happen if Britain left the EU? The Guardian. [Online] Available at: < http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/14/brexit-what-would-happen-if-britain-left-eu-european-union-referendum-uk> [Accessed: 26th January 2016]. Mair, P. (2007); “Political Opposition and the European Union” Government and Opposition vol. 42-1, pp. 1-17 Schmidt, V. (2006); “Adapting to Europe: Is it Harder for Britain?” British Journal of Politics and International Relations vol. 8-1, pp. 15-33 Smith, M. (2006); “Britain, Europe and the World” in Dunleavy, P. et al (eds.); Developments in British Politics 8 pp. 159-173 Read More