More than 4 million pro-Europeans recently signed the petition "EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum." The House of Commons' Petitions Committee has decided to schedule a debate on this petition. The debate will take place on 5 September at 4.30pm in Westminster Hall, the second debating chamber of the House of Commons.
Theresa May started her tenure as UK Prime Minister on 13 July, with the big decision awaiting her as to whether to trigger article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, which sets in motion a member state's exit from the bloc. Although no member state can be forced by the other member states into activating article 50, internal conservative party politics, the markets, the position of the EU-27 and the electoral cycle across the continent will play an important role as to when this actually takes place. Of these, it is the last which may well influence the timing of any negotiations.
Article 50 starts by saying: "Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements."
Coming to the Liberal Democrat conference? If so join us at our fringe meeting. Scheduled for Saturday 17 September 2016 from 8.15pm until 9.30pm in the Sandringham Room, Hilton Metropole, Brighton.
This should be combined with a commitment to quality trade deals, even if these take a bit longer than 'quick and dirty'...
Whilst the UK population took the decision on 23 June to vote to leave the EU, there are still countries which are looking to join the bloc. The UK had been a champion of EU enlargement, looking to extend the single market and also to widen the EU's membership. In spite of the UK referendum decision, EU enlargement will continue for the time being, although 'enlargement fatigue' within the EU will need to contended with, where the rise of populist parties has made enlargement, and subsequent immigration from newer to older member states, a less popular policy for EU governments to pursue.