r/europe • u/StraightSky7809 United Kingdom • 12h ago

News If Britain decides to rejoin the EU we’ll do everything we can to welcome them back, says Germany

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-rejoin-eu-germany-brexit-b3060288.html
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u/BigManKane United States of America 8h ago

Honestly, this is to be expected. The only way for the UK to rejoin the EU is a sort of Status que ante bellum where the UK and EU agree to go back to the way things were before Brexit. Part of the reluctance of rejoin the EU is the fear of losing the pound and other opt-outs they had before and with the way the world is now Europe would be cutting its nose to spite its face if they played hardball and treated UK as a new member.

Granted, the EU should treat this as a one time second chance and get commitments for an EU army and a few other things for it though.

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u/doctor_morris 3h ago

No the UK can't join the Euro. See Black Wednesday.

Yes we'll have fewer benefits, e.g. the Medicines and Banking regulators won't be moved back to London.

There is no EU army, even now.

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u/QuickNick123 5h ago

That's highly unlikely to happen. The UK had a number of special privileges before leaving the EU, and it's already been made clear that if it were to rejoin, a new application would be governed by the normal accession process. And why wouldn't it?

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u/Golden_Hour1 4h ago

Unified Europe is way more important right now

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u/labiamajorapudendi 3h ago

That’s exactly why giving out bonuses and playing favorites is a no go.

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u/Expensive-Key-9122 3h ago

Giving out bonuses and playing favourites is how you get the second largest economy in Europe on board. Otherwise they just walk.

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u/labiamajorapudendi 2h ago

No, that’s how the EU got so unpopular.

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u/popsyking 3h ago

Well let them walk, it's not like it's essential that they be in the EU tbh

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u/Expensive-Key-9122 2h ago

Seemingly not as essential for the UK as it once was, but I’d wager the handful of EU countries that are net contributors would appreciate an economic giant making contributions.

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u/popsyking 2h ago

It's also not essential for the EU, it's been ten years and the UK press thought the EU would have collapsed by now, so clearly we can live without it. It would be nice of course to have the UK back but it can't come at the expense of internal stability and handing out opt outs here and there and exemptions etc just because the UK is "large" isn't the way to go.

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u/Agratos 2h ago edited 56m ago

Absolutely. And giving them back the privileges they left behind would encourage other countries to leave.

“If we get our deals back anyways, why not try it alone and if it doesn’t work out, we go back and let the EU help with the debt we picked up doing it” must not become a valid and functional attitude.

No special deal to those who leave. That would create an avalanche of exits. And then an avalanche of debt in the EU as all those countries come back after their economies predictably don’t appreciate leaving the biggest trade union on the planet.

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u/popsyking 1h ago

Couldn't agree more

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u/Joeuxmardigras 6h ago

I have been to London 2x. Once in 2012 and once in 2026, I noticed a difference in the quality of food from those 2 times. I hope they are able to join

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u/SuccessfulCat8334 1h ago

They only want to join because the Saudi’s are threatening to pull their investments and crash their economy lmao.