The EU besides Brexit

Abstract

This chapter assesses the European Union besides Brexit, shedding light on the multiple other crises that the EU has recently faced in addition to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom. In the last decade, the EU has weathered the euro-crisis, the migration crisis, and the rule of law crisis, each of which has continued to sour throughout the Brexit negotiations. In addition to these old crises, the EU has now faced new ones—as shown by the difficulties of dealing with the issue of enlargement, the problem of climate change, and particularly the catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic. All of these crises have exposed the disunity of the EU—a counter-point to the unity that emerged in the Brexit negotiations. The chapter explains the difficulties of the EU27 in successfully tackling once and for all any of these crises, and the growing centripetal pulls at play, owing to the rise of very different visions of European integration—what can be called a ‘polity’, a ‘market’, and an ‘autocracy’ conception of the EU, which are competing with each other.