Can the EU Survive?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The UK has voted to leave the EU, sending shockwaves through Britain’s political class and its economy. Whatever the fate of Britain – and many fear years of damaging instability – Brexit is a serious blow to the European Union. Britain is far from the only member state with doubts about the scope of the European project. There are strong Eurosceptic movements in many other nations too. Some think the British precedent will boost their influence or that other nations will be able to use the threat of exit to undermine shared decision-making. And the loss of Britain – which is still, for now, Europe’s second-largest economy – could leave the Union precariously unbalanced, with Germany too dominant within it. As the EU contemplates an uncertain future, we are asking whether the EU even has a future without the United Kingdom. Presented by Chris Bowlby.
(Photo: David Cameron, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bulgarian Prime minister Roesen Plevneliev, Eurozone finance ministers with bank notes, euro coins and a map of Europe in the background. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the inquiry with me Chris Bulby. |
| 0:07.0 | The argument is over, the polls have closed. |
| 0:11.0 | In the next few hours we'll learn whether this country has chosen to remain |
| 0:14.8 | inside the European Union or to leave after more than 40 years. |
| 0:22.2 | On the night of Thursday the 23rd of June the entire world was watching Britain |
| 0:26.3 | and it looked very much like this country of reluctant Europeans had voted to remain |
| 0:31.0 | inside the EU. That's what the financial markets thought and so did |
| 0:35.0 | the pollsters. But then the results started coming in. |
| 0:39.4 | The number of votes cast in favour of leave the European Union was 25,385 and there were 21. The total number of |
| 0:49.7 | votes cast in favour of leave was 67,251. |
| 0:57.0 | The total number of votes cast in favour of leave was 82,000. |
| 1:05.6 | And by 4.30 a.m. the result was clear. Britain had changed forever. |
| 1:16.4 | Britain's who slept through the drama woke to hear their Prime Minister resign, |
| 1:21.0 | his voice breaking with emotion. I will do everything I can to help. Mr. and I will do everything I can in future to help this great country succeed. |
| 1:35.0 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:37.0 | And that was that. |
| 1:40.0 | After decades inside the European project and months of bitter campaigning, |
| 1:45.0 | Britain, the EU's second largest economy, was leaving. |
| 1:49.0 | But this isn't a programme about Britain, it's about her European neighbours who are in shock. |
| 1:57.0 | It's a choice of the called it painful. |
| 2:07.0 | The whole thing is a one shn't for Europe. |
| 2:11.0 | A watershed for Europe, Sir Chancellor Merkel of Germany. |
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