Brexit (the exit of Great Britain from the European Union), which after three and a half years of delay becomes a reality on January 31, is the latest in a long series of crises that have marked the history of the European Union (EU).
On July 1, 1965, France caused the "empty chair" crisis, refusing for seven months to participate in the work of the European institutions due to the conflict over the financing of the common European policy in agriculture.
France was again at the center of the crisis, as Charles de Gaulle twice - in 1963 and 1967 - vetoed the accession of Great Britain and thus delayed the admission of that country until 1973.
Repeating the phrase "I want my money back", the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher insisted since 1979 to get a rebate on the contributions Britain pays to the EU budget. She received it in 1984.
In a referendum on June 2, 1992, Denmark rejected the Maastricht Treaty, which established the EU and laid the foundations for the introduction of a common currency.
Having secured exemptions regarding the introduction of the euro and European defense, the Danes accepted the treaty in a new referendum on May 18, 1993.
The French adopted the contract with a narrow majority of only 51 percent.
On March 16, 1999, the European Commission submitted its collective resignation due to accusations of corruption.
In February 2000, the EU imposed sanctions on Vienna after the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) entered the Austrian government. It was the first time that a member state was sanctioned in this way. The bilateral relations of 14 member states with Austria were frozen for several months. On December 16, 2017, the Freedom Party entered the government again, but this time it did not provoke an angry reaction from Brussels.
After nine smooth ratifications, France rejected the first European constitution in a referendum on May 29, 2005, which had previously been ratified by nine countries.
On June 1, the Dutch also voted against. The document was buried, but some of its elements were introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force at the end of 2009.
Greek debts reached such proportions in 2009 that the country was on the verge of bankruptcy while Europe was in fear of "Grexit". Since 2010, Greece has been forced into several international bailout programs, conditioned by severe austerity, which caused mass protests, and the country fell into a multi-year depression. The debt crisis also affected Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.
The arrival of more than a million people on Greek and Italian shores rocked the EU in 2015, torn between calls to close its borders and show solidarity with people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
More than 19.000 people have died since 2014 trying to reach Europe. Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have categorically rejected a plan to redistribute asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, which has caused deep divisions in Europe.
And finally Brexit. The United Kingdom decided in a referendum in 2016 to leave the EU and difficult negotiations began, which were supposed to end with a divorce on March 29, 2019. The first version of the withdrawal agreement, which Brussels concluded with the then British Prime Minister Theresa May, was rejected three times. in the British Parliament, which is why the Brexit date has been repeatedly postponed.
Her successor, Boris Johnson, reached a new deal with Brussels in mid-October 2019. After moving the exit date back to January 31, 2020, he won a convincing majority in parliament in December's snap election, which finally enabled the Withdrawal Agreement to be ratified.
The EU will thus be left without one member state for the first time.
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