Brexit Dilemma and the Future of Euroscepticism

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) has always been sceptical towards the European integration initiative and European Union (EU) membership has been a controversial issue in UK politics throughout the decades. Following the historic referendum questioning the UK’s EU membership, the withdrawal of the UK from the EU (Brexit) has been on the top of the agenda both in the UK and the EU. Brexit referendum result raised concerns about the impact of UK’s exit from the EU on other EU member states’ (MS) perceptions on EU full membership and the future of EU integration. Thus, there were concerns whether Eurosceptic tendencies would increase among the political parties. In this framework, the purpose of the article is to discuss the extent to which the UK's decision to leave the EU has affected the Eurosceptic attitudes of political parties towards the EU. Although there were concerns whether Brexit would trigger a domino effect that would pose a threat to European integration, the public and political support towards EU integration and full membership remained mostly moderate. Devoting specific focus to the impact of Brexit on the future of Euroscepticism, this paper also discusses why Brexit appears to have less impact on Eurosceptic tendencies of political parties than it was anticipated. However, Euroscepticism in the MSs is likely to depend on the series of future crises the EU would face and the future success of the UK-EU relations.