The UK Referendum on Membership of the EU: What does it mean for us?” EU Referendum Briefing Paper 1

By the end of 2017 (but perhaps as early as June 2016) the people of the United Kingdom will have voted in a referendum that will decide whether the UK remains a member of the European Union. The decision that citizens in all parts of the UK make on that day will, among other things, determine whether the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland remains as an internal EU border allowing the free movement of goods, services, capital and people, or whether it becomes an external border marking the boundary between a state belonging to a club with another 26 members and a region of a UK seeking its future outside it. This decision will have consequences for future generations.

Given the importance of what is at stake and the range of complex issues the referendum raises, the Centre for Cross Border Studies with Cooperation Ireland decided to publish a series of Briefing Papers to help inform the debate.1 This is the first in that series, and it outlines some of the central issues that will then be examined in more detail in subsequent editions. However, in view of the number and complexity of the range of interrelated issues raised by the question of whether to remain in or leave the European Union, we do not aim to be exhaustive, but rather to point to some that could have a more immediate impact on cross-border cooperation and peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland.

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