Britain is starting to feel a Brexit cold shoulder from the rest of Europe as the country’s soon to be former partners squeeze the UK out of alliances and partnerships.
Animosity from the EU is appearing in lots of ways.
Britain is complaining multilateral action by the European Union depend on ‘lowest common denominator’ politics where a group decision is tough to reach, so arriving at a decision is based on the least action.
Chancellor Phillip Hammond has explained an example – Britain’s desire to join the US in applying severe sanctions against Russia over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury and the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“While we are still EU members we don’t have, with some very narrow exceptions, an independent sanctioning capability,” he said.
Foreign policy challenge
“We are discussing with EU partners the measures the US and others have taken. It is probably fair to say there are varying degrees of appetite within the EU for further pressure on this group of individuals.
“One of the challenges of working within the EUis that in these areas – foreign policy – one is required to build a consensus of 28, which means, frankly, operating at the lowest common denominator quite often.”
Meanwhile, the UK is locked out of developing the EU Galileo GPS satellite system after spending £1.4 billion on the partnership.
British collaboration seems unwelcome as some EU countries are concerned what the UK will do with sensitive security data from the project.
Spaced out
Graham Turnock, the UK Space Agency chief executive, warned that expelling the UK from Galileo could set the program back years and cost the EU billions more in development costs.
He explained Britain was looking for a refund from the European space agency and considering the launch of a national GPS satellite system.
“A lot of the capability that would be needed for a sat-nav system lies in Britain because we played a role in developing the satellites for Galileo,” he said.
“We cannot launch our own system yet, although obviously we are trying to address that, but this is something we think is in the realm of the credible.”
Try and see Brexit from an outsiders perspective. While British people may ardently argue otherwise, Europeans generally see Brexit as a reactionary decision by an uninformed public, angry as much at it’s own government as the EU, stoked up by popularist politicians. America voted for Trump, Britain voted for Brexit, it makes no rational sense. Brexit is costing every EU member money, with the uncertainty prompting them to spent money on backup plans, and generally hurting the overall European economy. Meanwhile, Brexit seems destined to be dragged on indefinitely due to chaotic British politics. The regular threat to walk-out of negotiation on a No Deal if Britain doesn’t get it way, thus plunging Europe into a recession, seems the act of a child and not worthy of Britain. Every EU member has their own internal reactionary politics so to an extent we understand what Britain is going through. We’re currently able to wish the best for Britain outside the EU, but as Brexit drags on, the temptation to turn a cold shoulder to Britain will only get worse. I fear this is only the beginning of an enduring hostility between Britain and the EU.