Will Britain leave the EU in the future?

Since the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community under the Treaty of Paris in 1951, no member has ever left the European Community or the European Union. There has been no formal mechanism for a state to leave the Union. Nonetheless, the Greenland leaved the EU in 1982 following massive opposition to the common fisheries policy and rising demand of home rule, but not as a member state. The treaty establishing the constitution for Europe explains now how a member state could leave the EU. The UK joined the EU then the European Economic Community in January 1973. The decision, taken by Conservative Prime minister Edward Heath, was extremely controversial and caused widespread division. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU is a major political issue. The debate, in some ways, goes to the heart of the question of UK’s future place in Europe and in the world either as an independent power or as a part of a larger bloc of powers. Supporters of withdrawal claim that the EU is on an inexorable path towards full political union, in which the UK would be subsumed as simply a region, to the detriment of British freedom, democracy, history and culture. Will Britain leave the EU in the future?