I think you will spend 93 seconds reading this post
Amazingly a month has flown by since the date of the referendum being set for 23rd June. Since then, the topic has become one of the central focuses of my reading – particularly in light of the fact that I have been trying to mug up about the impact of it and to be better informed to in turn place myself in a position to be able to inform others. I’ve had requests from journalists requesting interviews and asking for my 2 pence / 3 Eurocents worth, and have answered all sorts of questions about Expat life.I’ve also been trying to understand how exactly the EU Treaties address the issue of a Brexit, should the result of the referendum be that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union. There is an excellent post on the EU Law Analysis blog, which, even though it was written back in December 2014 prior to the last General Election, does a lot to explain how Article 50 of the EU Treaty would be invoked.
It highlights three particularly important provisions – Article 50 (3) to (5) – and mentions how they would come into play in the event of the United Kingdom choosing to leave. Most importantly there would be a transitional period of up to two years and there would be a possibility to rejoin – I have heard some bandying about of the prospect to rejoin when conditions are more favourable for the United Kingdom, however, I cannot find any logic in that argument, since as I understand it the UK would be treated like any new accession country – and therefore would not be able to opt out of economic and monetary union. It would also take time to rejoin – and I suspect that there would be considerable opposition from other “core” Member States that see “hokey cokey” behaviour as brinkmanship and would be very wary of Great Britain.
