Brexit would be damaging to Britain and dangerous for Europe

Former politician and diplomat Carl Bildt charts Britain’s relationship with the EU, from exclusion to integral to integration, and the ramifications of Brexit    

In 1963, French president Charles de Gaulle stunned the United Kingdom by rejecting its application to join the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union. The logic behind de Gaulle’s famous “non” was simple: Britain was not sufficiently European.

“England in effect is insular, she is maritime, she is linked through her exchanges, her markets, her supply lines to the most diverse and often the most distant countries,” explained de Gaulle.