Hard to imagine Britain joining both the Euro and the Schengen zones. I just don’t see the British public not thinking they’re special and demanding exceptions and carve outs just for them.
The currency is a hard no, even from hardent remainer quarters. The Euro and the ECB haven't even been a success for the EU as-is, a single fiscal policy cannot reconcile the economies of Germany and Greece. The hubris of the UK submitting to the Euro isn't pragmatic or in the realms of reality. Participation from the UK hardly changes things also, making it come across almost vindictive.
> The Euro and the ECB haven't even been a success for the EU as-is, a single fiscal policy cannot reconcile the economies of Germany and Greece.
Of course it has been a success. I (half-German, half-Croatian) grew up in times where each of the borders from Germany to Croatia had anything from 1-4 hours of waiting time, you'd need to exchange currency at each border (at outrageous rates) as well simply to be able to pay for fuel and food, and heaven forbid you even got a call on your phone due to roaming charges.
Nowadays? No border controls at least on the way to Croatia any more (the other way around does because of certain far-right politicians), no currency exchanges, no leftover currency when you go back, seamless cross-border bank transfers, no phone roaming surprise bills... it's utterly awesome.
Everything except the money changing on your list could be achieved without the Euro.
I was a remainer and I'd love to rejoin and Schengen, the mobile roaming stuff, etc. are all wonderful and I would like them back.
I'm not convinced the Euro would be a good idea and I'm absolutely convinced that you'd lose public support for rejoining if you tried to go that route.
I keep wondering if EEA + Schengen would be a viable middle ground.
What year was this? The removal of a lot of this financial friction was coming to and end regardless of the Euro or ECB. Didn't Croatia only join the Euro this year? I'm finding it hard to believe this archaic mechanism existed up until Jan 2023, that is to say I find the example slightly disingenuous.
The friction between Ireland and the UK is near zero, both have different currencies.
This isn't to say there aren't benefits to the Euro; on an individual level of course not thinking about exchanging or exchange rates makes life easy. It's simply not palatable to the UK, Brits or the core financial institutions by which its service oriented economy excels.
> What year was this? The removal of a lot of this financial friction was coming to and end regardless of the Euro or ECB. Didn't Croatia only join the Euro this year? I'm finding it hard to believe this archaic mechanism existed up until Jan 2023, that is to say I find the example slightly disingenuous.
Indeed, Schengen and Euro were only introduced this year - but I lived through how all of the old crap slowly got dismantled, each year it was one annoyance less.
The most painful thing is to see how many people want to dismantle all of that progress.
To play devil’s advocate, a lot of that is now ameliorated by the decline of cash and the rise of certain neobanks. I’m in Denmark at the moment, and thanks to my banks (N26, Revolut), I can cheaply convert my savings (EUR) and spend in the local currency (DKK); either at transaction time (N26 and Revolut), or ahead of time (Revolut) all with minimal fees.
Yes and the Neobanks, both N26 and Revolute rely on fact that financial regulators across the block recognise each other, so N26 regulated in Germany can operate in Ireland. Etc.
The only country which benefited from the Euro is Germany and they had the audacity to not only refuse the fiscal policies and transfers which might have made that fair but actually undermine the most affected countries like Greece even more. I personally lost all hope for the union after the debt crisis and considering the state of politics and denial of reality in the north of Europe, I really wish we would just leave too. I’m sad we lost the open border with the UK however, genuinely love the country but I’m not sure the rest of the EU is worth it.
No borders on the continent is useful, but not sure what it has to do with currency.
Nowadays when I travel, I just pay with my usual bank or credit card and get good rates without thinking about it. If my bank didn't have good rates, there's Revolut.
The main pain is that the EU hasn't standardised payment systems. So in parts of NL and Germany, you might find your Visa isn't accepted because they only take Maestro, or, in Sweden, Swish, for example.
The first time I went to Tenerife I was deeply puzzled by seeing long immigration queues on TFS. It took me weeks of wondering who those people were, before I realized that they were UK vacationers who didn't enjoy any of the convenience of Schengen. Even Swiss and Norwegians would just walk through like on a domestic flight, UK visitors got special attention.
That day I understood a lot more about brexit (that was still undecided at the time I think) than the day before: those who'd vote leave (and even most of those who'd vote stay) never had the opportunity to enjoy anything about the EU as a live, graspable experience, it had always just been an abstract concept for them. Something-something-economy, nothing that touched their lives.
If you're old enough (or sufficiently well-traveled) to have been stopped at borders, gone through the hassle of foreign currency, it's such an awesome "yes, this is the future!" moment to go to a place where people talk a language you don't understand, road signs are weird, but you never stopped, you can use the cash from home and the only sign of passing the border was the customary SMS telling you that all is fine when the phone logs into the roaming network. UK people never had any of that and I believe that the vote would have gone quite different if they did.
Yeah, the sentiment from the continental EU, even amongst the euro-skeptic, is that the British are playing both sides; they are European when it suits them, and non-European when it suits them.
I can’t imagine anyone would bend over backwards to accommodate the UK at this point.
I suspect they could maintain an opt out for the Schengen, purely because a land border exists with Ireland, which isn’t part of the Schengen area either. (That being said I’d like it if Ireland joined Schengen, as it makes it just a tad more convenient when flying to the rest of the EU)
Doubtful that they could avoid a commitment to joining the eurozone though.
Unfortunately Ireland will definitely not join Schengen unless the UK rejoin and do the same, as it would really mess up our border with Northern Ireland. I too would like it for the convenience but it's very unlikely to happen.
Ireland is not against Schengen. They are out because of UK and previous agreement. I think they would be extremely glad to join Schengen if UK was forced at exact same time.
I agree (I'm from Ireland, and we're generally fairly pro-EU). Being an island though, the reality it doesn't make a huge difference to us day-to-day.
The way I'd imagine the UK retaining it's opt-out here, is that it's something that the EU could compromise on without really losing much (and importantly without losing face, as the Irish border and preservation of the GFA is a reasonable excuse to find reason to compromise) and that the UK negotiators could then present as a "win" back home, making the other conditions that the UK now has to accept (for example the euro) easier to sell the general populace on.
Obviously though, I'd much prefer if both the UK and Ireland joined Schengen together.