Brexit and the future of the European Union

The article explores the conception of European integration and enlargement that was consistently proposed by leading British politicians in the post-War period prior to Brexit. Two basic themes are identified in that conception: first, a clear preference for a project of both integration and enlargement; and second, an equally clear resistance to the formation of a European superstate as the final goal of that project. The article concludes that this characteristically British vision of European union – the vision of a United Europe of States – is not exclusively British and is unlikely to disappear from the now Britain-free EU.