10.15166/2499-8249/278
https://www.europeanpapers.eu/en/e-journal/extra-unionem-nulla-salus-uk-withdrawal-and-european-constitutional-moment
2499-8249
Cannizzaro, Enzo
Enzo
Cannizzaro
Sapienza University of Rome
Extra Unionem Nulla Salus? The UK Withdrawal and the European Constitutional Moment
European Papers (www.europeanpapers.eu)
2019
European Union
UK Withdrawal agreement
EU founding Treaties
EU constitutional charter
Brexit
European integration
2019-02-08
Research Centre for European Law, Unitelma Sapienza - University of Rome
eng
Editorial
text/html
PDF
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(3), 1041-1043
It is possible that the 29th of March 2019 will be considered as the date on which the Union has ceased to be a quarrelsome community of sovereign States and has become a community of destiny. This may well occur if, on that date, EU law will cease to apply to the UK, thus transforming the withdrawal of that State into a disorderly and ruinous retreat. However, far from revealing the fragility of the European edifice, this inauspicious outcome can turn out to magnify the Constitutional dimension of the process of integration. Regardless of the final outcome of Brexit, the events of these days may show that the links among the peoples of Europe have become so close that it is very difficult to untie them. They could make the prophecy of the functionalist philosophy come true, which advocated a de facto solidarity as the indispensable premise for the creation of a community sharing a common destiny. The difficulty, if not even the impossibility, for the peoples of the Member States to part ways seems to indicate that the process of integration is becoming de facto irreversible and that these peoples are gradually being transformed into a full-fledged community. It is this process of transformation that heralds, in spite of the harsh present time, a Constitutional moment for Europe.