At the end, the majority of the British people decided in favour of leaving the EU. I am one of those who did not expect, but were not surprised by, the result. Not least because I had heard how the get out the vote machine of the Remain camp was malfunctioning, while its message had been too elitist.
Now the “Europeans” must decide how to organize the UK’s departure. Beyond the shape that their relations with the UK had better assume, they must first decide how to play the ball.
Should they quickly establish a new relationship with the EU that would keep both sides close to each other? And therefore should they proceed “softly”?
Or should they consider that by doing so, they would encourage those political forces in member countries which would also like to secure an exit? And they had better therefore adopt a “tough” approach?
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Immigration
As was to be expected, immigration ended up a prime topic in the British referendum campaign. It will remain like so in the coming months of political agitation that will be going on in Europe. There will be pluses and minuses in this.
On the one hand, efforts must increase to deal with the whole matter in a comprehensive and effective manner. As of now, this has failed to happen. All concerned preferred to let matters proceed unchecked so long as they were only having negative repercussions on neighbours.
However, campaigns about immigration have the effect of generating polemics, coarsening political discourse and stimulating racist sentiments among ordinary people.
We are dealing with a complex phenomenon.
Europe can do more to help refugees.
Yet, a substantial number of its citizens feel uncomfortable with the presence of refugees and would like not to have them around.
Quite a substantial lot of others, though possibly less in number, would welcome immigrants with open arms without bothering about whether whole communities will feel adversely affected by this.
Some EU member states need to increase their population by admitting migrants.
Many of the efforts carried out to ensure that migrants integrate well in the communities where they arrive, have been unsuccessful.
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Marsascala meeting
Last Friday, my office organized a public meeting under the emblem of the European party of socialists and democrats at Inspire in M’scala. The scheduled discussion was about immigration and terrorism in Europe. The result of the British referendum had just been announced and Brexit dominated the debate that took place.
I wasn’t too displeased about this. After all the three subjects are intimately linked.
European countries among which the UK, provoked in part the surge of immigration being experienced by Europe following their intervention in Arab countries. The threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism is also a consequence of the immigration and integration policies implemented in past decades, which achieved ambiguous results.
The British referendum opened a new space for the ongoing debate about whether a response to these developments should be given in the context of a Europe-wide union, or by allowing each and every country to retain control over its affairs.