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The Commission’s White Paper on the Future of Europe – a case of what might have been

Begg, Iain , (2017), “The Commission’s White Paper on the Future of Europe – a case of what might have been…”, EUROPP, 9 March

Last week, the European Commission published its White Paper on the Future of Europe (WP), its attempt to set out the options for the development of the European Union. It explicitly rejects the narrow choice between more or less, offering instead a range of scenarios described as ‘neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive’. The WP’s opening line comes perilously close to being an epitaph, stating: ‘for generations, Europe was always the future’, oddly reminiscent of David Cameron’s valedictory statement to the House of Commons, ‘I was the future once’.

The overt purpose of the WP is to stimulate debate how to recast the EU. It can, equally, be read as a means of waving goodbye to the UK and moving-on. The document looks forward to the meeting later in March when ’27 Heads of State and Government meet in Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of our common project.

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