On Brexit

June 24, 2016 - a day that came down to history. The United Kingdom has chosen to leave the European Union and allegedly put itself into a danger of probable dissolution after 315 years of its existence.
I saw that many of my colleagues have written dissaponted-looking, angry or ironic posts on social media. I don't write to stand out in some way, but I consider most of those posts quite naive. I understand that many people here will "throw tomatoes and sticks" at me, but I feel that EU leaders use the same populist rhetoric as the leaders of the "Leave" campaign. Think of it: European leaders in fact tell that they will do everything to make Brexit as much difficult and exhausting as possible in order to show other EU member states that it's not a good option to leave. That is not democratic. The right to exit the Union exists since the coming into force of the Lisbon treaty in 2009. If that right exists and it is recognized, why do European leaders say that Britain has done a bad thing?
Of course, Brexit is quite a dramatic and non-usual event. But did Europe forget how the UK was denied EU membership twice in the 1960s? Did it forget that reluctant Britain had many unique opt-outs as a EU member state?
As I have written in my Facebook post earlier, I don't see any huge economic catastrophe due to Brexit. Media and EU officials have certainly exaggerated the possible effect from the leave. Britain most probably will remain a de facto part of the common market either through a new bilateral free trade agreement with Brussels, or through returning to EFTA. The UK will remain in the European Economic Area.
The main reason for the EU membership referendum was ineffective management from Brussels. European officials have failed to effectively deal with the dangerous developments inside the Union, especially with the uncontrolled immigration wave. It is natural that even though multicultural environment definitely has its pros, it is irritating when you have people of a completely other faith and speaking another language just around you - it is not my personal opinion but that certainly is a feeling of many European nationals leaving in countries, which accept many immigrants. The dictate of Brussels and misunderstanding of where the EU should be strict and where not led to Brexit. The reasons do not lie in some naive presumption that elder and not well-educated people led Britain to leave - we don't know, whether those people have been thinking analytically or not. Yet the reality is that they identified themselves with eurosceptic sentiments due to Brussels mismanagement.
For the people of Europe, current unattractive EU is worse than complete independence from supranational bodies. Populism can be found everywhere in politics, but people never cast vote because of nothing. "Leave" campaign attracted more voices because people identified themselves with its view. And European Union officials post factum accused those people of foolishly choosing the wrong option. But is that really a wrong option? Why should Britain remain in a Union, which is not able even to defend its border, is not able to deal quickly with financial problems and which became a terrorists' "testing range"? The EU fell so deep down that even Eastern European countries start to hesitate about whether it is worth acceding to the Union.
EU has either to rethink its own conception as quickly as possible, or to quietly dissolute. We see that Europe is not ready to be united, and the EU is only effective and attractive as a common market, not a political union or, moreover, as a federation.