Controversial Aspects Of The United Kingdom

The United Kingdom currently has a very extensive and complex relationship with the European Union, a relationship that has been under development from the destruction of World War II until this very day. However, the British people voted in the recent referendum, to leave the European Union. Despite the choice of the people, the binary choice to leave or to stay is not sufficient to define a new relationship with the countries of Europe. Several aspects, such as the economy, people’s rights and the law, will go through massive changes, due to the so-called “Brexit.”

One of the most controversial aspects of the European Union which played a massive role in the decision of many to vote to leave is immigration, more specifically the right

Some of these rights are “the right to look for a job without a work permit, to reside, to stay even after employment has finished and enjoy equal treatment with nationals in access to employment, working conditions and all other social and tax advantages and the right to have access to the health and social security coverage transfer across nations” (1 European Commission). The rights of UK citizens across the channel and of EU citizens in the United Kingdom alike, in the upcoming months will be revised. There has been a strong push by Eastern European politicians asking for the UK to give them free movement after Brexit, there has also been pressure by the European Parliament’s Brexit Negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, who said, he wished to give Britons the right to apply for certain rights

The single market is at the heart of the European Project and involves 500 million consumers and 21 million small and medium-sized enterprises (2 European Commission). The single market has standardized quality across all nations part of it, decreasing costs, improving safety and enhancing competition, the market also removed barriers to trade such as tariffs and border inspections. The membership of the UK in this market has been extremely beneficial. According to the Guardian. the UK membership of the European single market is worth 4% additional GDP to the economy. The single market is also essential for the service industry, which has been expanding greatly recently, 44% of UK’s exports in 2015 were service sector exports (Elliott, 2016). The UK must make very difficult choices regarding its economic future. There are three main realistic alternatives to the current single market we are part of, the Norway Model, Negotiated Bilateral Agreements and the WTO-only model. Norway is required to ensure domestic law that complies with that of the EU and obliged to accept free movement of people, and has no say on any EU legislation. However, it has considerable access to the free market. This could be an attractive proposition, if not for the fact that it would require free movement of people, which as mentioned before, is a very controversial aspect of the British relationship with the EU. The