Would the EU have us back?

This is the most-asked question about rejoining the EU. After everything that has happened with Brexit, even if we wanted to rejoin... would the EU really have us back?

One poll found that just 41% of UK voters think it is likely that the EU would accept an application to rejoin – which is far lower than the percentage who want to rejoin! But this pessimism is unwarranted.

The truth is, whenever an EU leader is asked this question, they answer that they hope the UK will someday rejoin. And their answers are generally not centred on economic or political interests, but personal and values-based.

To take the most prominent example, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was asked in 2023 whether Britain could ever rejoin the EU. She replied: “I must say, I keep telling my children: ‘You have to fix it. We goofed it up, you have to fix it.’” She added that she personally believes the UK is on a “direction of travel” back towards the EU.

Her comments were met with rebukes from UK politicians, but noticeably not from EU figures. On the contrary, there is a broad consensus across the EU that Brexit is a matter of regret and that the UK would be welcome to rejoin.

An open door

Michel Barnier, who led the Brexit negotiations for the EU, told ITV’s Peston show in 2023 that “the door is open any time” for the UK to rejoin the EU.

He said: “To be clear, the UK government – the current government, the next government – knows exactly what are the terms and the conditions to be part of the single market, to be part of the customs union, to join the EU.”

So far two senior EU politicians, former European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt MEP and Green group co-president Terry Reintke MEP, have even come over to London to speak from the stage at a National Rejoin March.

Verhofstadt told the crowd: “I want to see in my life the return of the UK to the European Union – and why? Because in fact Brexit has been a disaster for the UK and a disaster for Europe also… Don’t give up. We in the European Union will welcome you back. It is a question of our heart, of our soul.”

In her speech, Terry Reintke also emphasised that the EU wants us to come back. She said: “I believe, and I am convinced, the European Commission, the member states and the vast majority of the European Parliament are completely united in this one message: our door remains open!”

The European public agree too, with polling conducted for the five-year anniversary of the referendum showing that large majorities in every EU country polled would support the UK rejoining.

Still a European country

Beyond the views of individuals, the legal position of the European Union is that any European state can apply for membership. The application will then proceed according to its standard process and be assessed by its published criteria.

The EU regularly accepts new members, with 13 new member states since the turn of the century, and more applications currently on their way through the process.

As Jill Rutter of the Institute for Government put it on Radio 4: “The EU is open to applications for membership from any European country. We’re still a European country, so we can always apply.”

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