Once a magnet for states seeking peace, prosperity and security, the European Union faces a series of challenges associated with the Eurozone crisis, which has ebbed and flowed since 2010, and migration which is a source of concern to those of left (raising humanitarian issues) and right (raising opposition to influxes of migrants), polarising politics across Europe. Such problems have raised the spectre of Greek exit from the EU (Grexit) and form the background to the UK’s forthcoming referendum on remaining in the EU, potentially leading to Brexit.

Before the vote, David Cameron, anxious to hold his party together, has pledged to renegotiate our terms of membership, just as Harold Wilson did forty years ago. While the SNP is committed to UK (or at least Scotland) remaining in the EU and Lib Dems have made clear their support for membership of the EU for decades and campaigned as the Party of ‘In’ at the last European elections, the position of the Labour Party remains unclear and divided – three of the four leadership candidates favour keeping Britain in Europe; Jeremy Corbyn’s position is not yet clear and the Left has clearly found the drive to austerity and the lack of solidarity with Greece has caused some to question the merits of the EU. And the experiences of Coalition and the AV and Scottish referendums have made parties reluctant to cooperation in the referendum.

So what are the prospects for Cameron’s renegotiations and the referendum? Julie Smith will reflect on the issues that David Cameron, George Osborne and Philip Hammond will be discussing with our EU partners over the coming months in the hopes of securing acceptable deal to sell to their party and to the voters before considering the factions jockeying for position on the Yes and No sides ahead of the formal referendum campaigns. She will argue that the current crises facing the EU render a Yes vote more difficult, at least in England, and that an English ‘No’ coupled with a Scottish ‘Yes’ could precipitate the break-up of Britain (Sexit).

“The European Referendum and the Greek Tragedy”. Dr. Julie Smith (Baroness Smith of Newnham, a former President of LIBG) is speaking to Liberal International (British Group) North West in Crewe on Friday 4 September. Admission free, all welcome. The Gladstone Room, the Crewe Arms Hotel, opposite Crewe Railway station; 6.30 (tea and coffee) for 7.

* Julie Smith is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Cambridge, a member of the House of Lords and Cambridge City Council