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__ __ __ __ __ __ _**Written by Richard Corbett, ex Lab. MEP**_ Faced with opinion polls showing that the UK public increasingly wants to rejoin the EU, those who are still hostile to this are peddling the line that the EU would never want us back. This is nonsense. Indeed, several EU leaders have said so over the last few months: Polish PM Tusk said he was “dreaming of a Breturn”; Finnish President Stubb came to London to say that “Brexit was a colossal mistake and the UK should rejoin”; and Spanish PM Sanchez said he would “definitely like to have the UK back on board in the EU”. The EU wants Britain back for three reasons. In ascending order of importance: * If the only member state ever to have left comes back a few years later saying that it had been a dreadful mistake, this would be a feather in the cap of the EU, proving its utility and necessity. * Brexit hurt the EU too – albeit not by as much as it hurt Britain. Losing a member state for the first time in its history was compounded by economic damage: the added trade friction and costs of doing business with Britain, the amputation of a significant part of the single market, and the loss of a major international player. * Above all, the new geopolitical situation provides a powerful incentive. Putin’s military aggression in the east combined with the unreliability of the USA under Trump has starkly illustrated that all European countries must hang together or hang separately. They share common interests and values. Others have also reached this conclusion, hence the growing list of states applying to join the EU, and the EU’s positive response, which includes a possible accelerated procedure for Ukraine. Joining the EU requires negotiations. This can take time – but in the case of Britain it need not. As a former member, Britain is still largely aligned with EU policies and rules. Where it has diverged, this is already known and identified. This is quite a different situation from the western Balkan countries and Ukraine, who started from scratch. There is no technical reason for Britain’s negotiation to take longer than that of Finland, which completed the whole process from application to accession in less than three years. Like Britain, its legislation was already largely aligned with single market rules (in its case, thanks to its prior participation in the European Economic Area). Of course, there will be some tricky subjects – and already the dwindling band of Brexit supporters point to them as if they were insurmountable obstacles. They most frequently cite a requirement for Britain to join Schengen and the euro. A closer look shows that this is not necessarily the case. On Schengen, Ireland is also not a member. The UK and Ireland never joined Schengen for practical, not ideological, reasons. As islands they have limited border crossings that (unlike land borders) are difficult to circumvent, but internally they lack the means of checking that other EU countries have, as neither has a system of identity cards and official residences. It made sense to maintain checks at the few border crossings, given the limited ability to do so after entry. This was understood and accepted by other EU countries, and Ireland would help ensure that this understanding continues. On the euro, the EU’s starting point in the negotiations may well be that the UK should commit to joining. But, there are now five EU member states that are not in the euro and show no intention of joining. Furthermore, the EU is intending to admit Ukraine and other countries who will not be able to join the euro for decades. In that situation, would they really insist that Britain commits to joining or, as part of the deal, accept that the UK would be free to join when it wants, but with no deadline? No doubt those who still oppose Britain getting its seat back at the table will come up with all kinds of fanciful reasons why we shouldn’t even try. But given the damage Brexit has caused to Britain’s economy and to its geopolitical interests, such siren voice should be ignored. RC 22/5/2026 __ __ __ __ __ __