On 23 June 2016, the British citizens decide about their country’s EU membership. In order to gain a majority in favour of the EU membership the British Prime Minister David Cameron negotiated further opt-outs from EU law for Great Britain, in addition to those already existing. At the example of the negotiated British exemption from the objective of ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’, which numerous observers have dismissed as a solely symbolic concession, the article shows that this in fact constitutes a fundamental turning away from the Jean Monnet Method. If the new exceptional regulations for Great Britain set a precedent among other ‘dissatisfied’ member states, the article sees the danger of a European integration proceeding not only with different speeds, but also in different directions.
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