An open letter to the peoples of Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro

Dear citizens of countries considering joining the European Union,

We wish to distance ourselves from Boris Johnson, our Foreign Secretary, who recently said he will continue to support Turkey’s desire to join the European Union.

We believe that, instead, he should have been telling his Turkish hosts that we voted to leave the EU in last June’s referendum because the EU is not a good organisation to belong to.

We are not the only people who don’t like it.

• British holidaymakers visiting some parts of Italy found themselves cheered by the locals because of the Brexit vote. They want a referendum too and if they are given one, it’s quite possible they would vote to leave.
• In France and the Netherlands, parties critical of EU membership have seen a massive surge in support during the last few years.
• In the Czech Republic, less than a decade after the country joined the EU, their former President,   Václav Klaus, published a book saying that his country should leave the EU

Why, then, do you want to join a club of failures that is falling apart?

Why do you want to surrender control of your country?

• If you join the EU, you will not be able to send your own representatives to many international bodies. Instead, someone from the EU will attempt to represent yourselves and the present 27 countries. How can one person be a voice for so many conflicting interests? Rest assured, your concerns won’t get much of a look-in
• If you join the EU, you will eventually have to adopt the €uro, which has caused widespread unemployment and misery in countries like Spain and Greece.
• If you join the EU, you will find yourselves plunged into a heated debate about migrant quotas which is causing bitter division between the old EU countries and some new member states
• If you join the EU, you will have to put something like 170,000 pages of the EU Acquis Communautaire onto your country’s statute books
• If you are a small country, your voting weight in the EU institutions will be pretty limited.
• Yes, you will receive some money from the EU’s various funds, but don’t be fooled. You are being bribed to give up your freedom.
• Your national political institutions will be progressively hollowed out, with more and more power being handed over to Brussels
• You will be subject to fines from the European Court of Justice if you breach EU rules
• You will find yourselves fighting a rearguard action to prevent powers to tax and spend being taken away from your own elected representatives,

Is this really what you want?

We voted to leave the EU because we believe there is a better way forward

We voted to leave because we don’t think the EU is viable in the long term – and with good reason. Just look at Belgium, the country where so many EU institutions are based. Its two main constituent communities, the Walloons and the Flemish, still don’t get on after over 180 years. What chance, then, of building a successful stable federal superstate with 30 or more different countries?

If you want to trade with the EU, why not join the European Free Trade Association, which could offer you access to the Single Market without getting sucked into a political project?

Its four members, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, know they are better off outside the EU.  Iceland and Switzerland were potential candidates for EU membership for some years, but have now withdrawn their membership. It has nothing positive to offer them

We voted for Brexit on June 23^rd because we know we will be better off outside the EU

So please don’t take any notice of Boris – you will be better off too!

One final point:- If you ever join the EU but later have second thoughts, think of our situation. One expert has described the complexity of the forthcoming Brexit negotiations as “mind-boggling.”  We’re not in the Euro, not in Schengen and had more opt-outs from EU legislation than any other member state. If it’s going to be challenging for us, it will be worse for you. Best keep well away and not join up in the first place.

Yours sincerely,

The Campaign for an Independent Britain