Yeah, how ever did England make it for thousands of years with out the EU?
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By surviving countless wars against the rest of Europe, before the rest of the world had the capability of threatening them. Then they were almost destroyed in WW2. After that they joined the EU because they could not compete by themselves against the emerging world powers at the end of the 20th century.
The EU has been in full force for a whopping 15 years and many of the EU States are finding out what it's like living under an overbearing central government and many don't like it. England is just the first to say, enough.
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The EU has existed in some form for over 60 years. It's going to be a hard road for the UK for a long time.
My bold
The EU has developed
an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the
free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market,
[11] enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade,
[12] agriculture,
[13] fisheries, and
regional development.
[14] Within the
Schengen Area,
passport controls have been abolished.
[15] A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.
The EU traces its origins from the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the
European Economic Community (EEC), formed by the
Inner Six countries in 1951 and 1958, respectively. Next the treaty of Rome of 1957 created the European Community made up of the six core countries of
Belgium,
France,
Italy,
Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and
West Germany. The decades following many new members joined them while at the same time integration of economic, cultural, judicial and so forth would then deepen the relationships distinct European entity. The community and its successors have grown in size by
the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has
left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the
United Kingdom enacted the
result of a
membership referendum in June 2016 and is
currently negotiating its withdrawal.
The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship.[16] The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009.
European Union - Wikipedia