Grombles

We can’t be sure what the world will look like if we quit the EU, but we can map out some of the difficulties we’re likely to face How does one head for the exit? Until 2007 no one really knew: but then the Lisbon Treaty clarified the matter. “Any Member State,” it stipulates in Article 50, “may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.” If UK voters opt to leave on 23 June, the Government, having notified Brussels of its intention to quit, would have, strictly speaking, no more than two years to negotiate a withdrawal agreement. At that point, the European Communities Act of 1972 would be repealed – and the UK, in one bound, would be free of some 40 years’ worth of EU laws and regulations. Would it really be that simple? No, not if we wanted to preserve our existing trade relationship with Europe. That’s because the EU’s Single Market is far more than a traditional free trade area – an area in which taxes