Could the UE Break up ?

From a distance, what seemed unimaginable even a few years ago -- the breakup of the EU now seems possible. But is this simply scaremongering by people who do not really understand what is happening inside the EU and are not familiar with its history?

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Dr Usherwood from the department of politics at the university of Warwick in the UK outlines perhaps a contrarian theory in the present situation; that the EU will not break up.

One of the core principles of the EU is that of freedom of movement of people and goods throughout EU countries. The migrant situation seems to be challenging that. In fact, as Dr Usherwood points out, the real threat is not that great.

Yes border fences are being erected between some countries, but not everywhere. Yes there are problems of distribution of migrants between countries, but we are not seeing the breakdown of the basic institutions within the community. EU citizens are still free to move around albeit with a few inconveniences which were not there previously in terms of selective border checks. Dr Usherwood hints that the fences perhaps have more to do with creating the impression that member states are taking the migration problem seriously than actually doing something serious to change existing policy.

One common misunderstanding about the EU as Dr Usherwood points out, is that it is a monolithic organisation which makes all decisions in Brussels. In fact it is a community of countries which takes decisions nationally. Sometimes not all states agree, and policies are not implemented. For example, it is unlikely that all countries will agree on somehow punishing Poland regarding certain actions it has taken recently. During the EU financial crisis, not all countries wished to stop Greece's membership rights because they knew that the same thing could happen to them later on.

The EU is about consensus building, when times are good that is possible, when times are bad that is not easy. But the EU is not really built to handle crises. Having said that, Dr Usherwood points out, the EU has survived a lot of them. In the final analysis, it is not in countries' interests to return to the pre-EU situation in Europe when you had the protectionism and nationalism of the 1930s. We had facsism, nationalism and the failure of communism. All of these things made politicians find a way through. Dr Usherwood thinks that it is unlikely that the EU will fall apart.
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source

 Utopia