The assessment came during a conference held on Tuesday in Warsaw at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Political Studies.
The event, titled “Ten Years after the Brexit Referendum: Lessons for Poland and the European Union,” marked the anniversary of the June 23, 2016 vote in which 52 percent of British voters backed leaving the EU and 48 percent supported remaining.
Britain formally left the bloc on January 31, 2020. Since then, polls have consistently shown that more than half of Britons regard Brexit as a mistake, and that a majority would support rejoining if another referendum were held.
Experts at the Warsaw conference cautioned, however, that such support weakens when voters are asked about the likely conditions of renewed EU membership.
Support falls when respondents are told that Britain could be expected to join the eurozone or the Schengen Area, the border-free travel zone used by most EU countries.
Marta Prochowicz-Jazowska of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said it remained unclear how much of the pro-EU shift was driven by current international tensions, including the policies of US President Donald Trump and Russia's war against Ukraine.
If those factors are decisive, she argued, support for rejoining may rest on a fragile foundation.
Przemysław Biskup of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) said the 2016 referendum was primarily about identity, rather than economic indicators.
He argued that Britain’s troubled relationship with European integration had roots stretching back to the period before it joined the European Communities in 1973.
Biskup pointed to France’s vetoes of British membership in the 1960s, which prolonged negotiations and led to painful concessions, including in fisheries. The decline of that sector later became one of the arguments used by supporters of Brexit.
He also said Britain had changed from an industrial and service-based economy in 1973 into one now based overwhelmingly on services. Many Britons, he argued, did not feel personal benefits from EU membership but did experience the negative effects of economic change.
Witold Sobków, Poland’s ambassador to Britain from 2012 to 2016, said the EU had made a mistake by rejecting some of then-British Prime Minister David Cameron’s demands before the referendum. Cameron had sought concessions intended to help persuade voters to remain in the bloc.
Sobków said newer EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe could not accept limits on their citizens’ access to the British labor market for political reasons.
Other countries, he said, treated free movement within the EU too dogmatically, while some were, in effect, willing to see Britain leave.
Konrad Szymański, Poland’s Minister for European Union Affairs from 2015 to 2022, also argued for more flexibility from Brussels, both before the Brexit vote and in relations with member states more broadly.
He said Britain, which was not a founding member of the European Communities, had too often been treated as a problem, deepening mutual distrust over time.
The anniversary has revived debate in Britain and Europe about Brexit’s long-term impact.
The Italian daily La Repubblica described Brexit as a "curse" and said the country once seen as one of Europe’s most stable had become difficult to govern.
A recent More in Common survey cited by The Guardian found that 60 percent of Britons aged 18 to 28 would vote for Britain to rejoin the EU, while 9 percent would vote against.
The survey of 440 young people also found that 50 percent of Generation Z respondents viewed Brexit as a failure, compared with 16 percent who considered it a success.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP