Everyone is talking about rejoining the EU. What does that actually mean, and what are our options?

Written by Katherine Bradshaw

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has spoken about the need for closer ties with the EU, stating that Brexit has “done more harm than good”. What he has not done is set out a clear plan for how his government intends to address the problems he has identified.

On Monday the 12 of October, Parliament debated the petition “Apply to Rejoin the EU as soon as possible to increase growth in the UK” which gathered more than 111,000 signatures. The debate was opened by Labour MP Tony Vaughan. The government’s response, delivered by Cabinet Office minister Mark Ferguson, contained several notable acknowledgements.

He accepted that Brexit had cost the UK some control over its own economy. Goods trade with the EU was 7% lower last year than in 2018, and around 16,000 exporters have stopped selling to the EU altogether. He also confirmed that the next UK-EU summit will take place on the 20th of November. There the government hopes to finalise:

● A food and agriculture agreement and a link between the UK and EU carbon markets, together expected to be worth £9 billion a year by 2040
● UK participation in Erasmus+ from January 2027
● A new youth experience scheme

He described these plans as the “floor, not the ceiling, of our ambition”. He added that the Prime Minister will set out options for the long-term relationship around the summit and seek consensus on which is best. What he did not say was just as telling. He neither confirmed that rejoining is among those options nor repeated the government’s position from January. Its official response to this same petition then stated plainly that the UK “will not be rejoining the EU”.

Many people are unsure what the options actually are, so what are they?

1. Stay as we are
Keeping the EU at arm’s length is the position of the Conservatives and Reform UK. In the debate, shadow minister Mike Wood argued that an independent trade policy is one of Brexit’s benefits. He also argued that rejoining would mean adopting the euro, joining the Schengen area and paying substantially more into the EU budget.

2. Stay outside, but build closer ties
This appears to be the Labour government's current approach, although the Prime Minister has yet to state how far it will go. Some progress has already been made. The UK will rejoin the Erasmus+ programme from 2027, allowing British students to study in Europe and European students to study here through exchanges. That is a welcome boost for the universities that are struggling financially.

Closer cooperation could also restore access to the EU’s Eurodac fingerprint database. Eurodac records where asylum seekers first entered Europe and whether they have already claimed asylum elsewhere. Several MPs argued in the debate that losing access to Eurodac and the EU’s returns arrangements contributed to the rise in small boat crossings after Brexit. We should learn more at the summit in November.

3. Join a customs union
This is the Liberal Democrats’ first step, with the single market to follow. In a customs union, goods move between the UK and the EU without tariffs, and the UK applies the EU’s common external tariff to everyone else. This would reduce rules-of-origin paperwork and ease the situation in Northern Ireland.

The cost is that the UK would lose its independent trade policy, and existing trade deals would have to be unpicked or renegotiated. A customs union also does not cover services, which make up the majority of the UK economy.

4. Join the Single Market
The single market is built on the EU’s “four freedoms”: the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) is the model that would fit best. It offers much deeper economic access than a customs union, especially for services, but it comes with drawbacks.

● The UK would have to follow EU rules without having a vote on them because it would sit outside the EU’s decision-making institutions
● It would have to contribute to EU programmes
● It would have to accept the free movement of people. Given how central immigration was to the Brexit vote, and how contentious it remains, this may be the hardest condition to sell to the public.

5. Full Membership
This is what the Greens, the SNP and many Labour backbenchers called for in the debate. It would give full access to the EU and crucially restore our seat at the table and our vote on policies.

The seat at the table only matters if it is used. As Liberal Democrat MP and former MEP Caroline Voaden pointed out in the debate, the UK helped shape EU legislation, but our representation was only as effective as the people we sent. She noted that Nigel Farage, then an MEP and now Reform UK’s leader, attended just one of 42 European Fisheries Committee meetings over three years, while it was drafting rules that affected British fishers.

However, the UK would not get its old deal back. When Britain joined in 1973, and over the decades that followed, it negotiated a uniquely privileged position, including a budget rebate and opt-outs from the euro and Schengen area. New members do not receive those exemptions. Instead, they formally commit to adopting the euro eventually, although some members, such as Sweden, have delayed this in practice for decades. We would once again pay into the EU budget, which is likely to remain contentious in the UK.

Rejoining would also involve a long process:
● Negotiations over membership terms
● The consent of the European Parliament
● Unanimous approval by the Council of the EU
● Ratification of an accession treaty by Britain and every member state

A referendum is not legally required, but it is almost certain that any government would hold one before rejoining. All of this would be extraordinarily difficult and could take many years.

Where does that leave us?

I recognise that I may sound pessimistic. My own goal is to see the UK back in the EU, but I am also a realist, and my aim here has been to give a balanced overview of the options rather than to argue for one. Public opinion is not easily shifted. Many people feel that, having made a decision in 2016, we should live with it. Others believe that the EU would not have us back. That is not true: French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and senior MEPs have all welcomed the prospect, even while acknowledging that it would be challenging.

For young people, I think the most realistic hope is that the UK joins a customs union within the next five years. A step-by-step approach, with the public given a say at each stage on how far we want to go, makes far more sense than simply announcing to Europe that we want to rejoin.

The summit on the 20th of November will be the first real test. If the government means what it says about “the floor, not the ceiling”, we will see whether its ambition stops at food standards and youth visas, or whether it is prepared to put a customs union, the single market or even membership on the table. Ten years on from the referendum, the question is no longer whether we should talk about Europe again, but honestly how far we are willing to go.

Written by Katherine Bradshaw

Katherine Bradshaw
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