Alternatives to Further Integration

The EU was designed by the founding members to accommodate their perceived commonly shared objectives, whilst further measures of integration, including the abolition of exchange controls, the design of the single market, and the forfeiture of economic sovereignty through entering EMU, may be rational consequences for those EU nations which are locked closely through trade, but could be viewed debateable for the UK which conducts a large proportion of its trade outside the EU and possesses closer cultural ties with the USA and Commonwealth countries. However, the question that demands an answer is ‘What is the alternative?’ Given that the political and economic elite in most EU countries have consistently supported further integration, alternatives have rarely been discussed. In the countries which allowed referendums over the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and in the new 2004 EU entrants, almost without exception all major political parties, business and trade union leaders joined together in an alliance to persuade voters to back the integrationist project. However, public opinion and polls often appear to be questioning of EU political and economic integration, but the UK seems to be anxious of the consequences of lessening its membership.