{"id":1157476,"date":"2026-08-19T12:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1157476\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T12:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:23:29","slug":"can-a-new-european-confederation-reconnect-the-uk-with-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1157476\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a New \u2018European Confederation\u2019 Reconnect the UK with the EU?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Boles, a former Conservative MP and UK minister, made a big splash in a country still struggling to adapt to the consequences of Brexit when he published an <a href=\"https:\/\/demos.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Beyond-Brexit_Nick-Boles_2026.ac_.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">essay<\/a> this month proposing a new deal for the United Kingdom\u2019s relationship with Europe. By Europe, Boles primarily means the European Union and European Economic Area (EEA) countries, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Western Balkans.<\/p>\n<p>His proposal sparked reactions from international media and several commentators in the Western Balkans, but it also generated false claims that this was a proposal by the new UK government under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.<\/p>\n<p>Central to Boles\u2019s proposal is the negotiation of a &#8216;New Deal&#8217; between the UK and Europe and the establishment of a new European Confederation that would replace the <a href=\"https:\/\/ukandeu.ac.uk\/explainers\/the-european-political-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">European Political Community<\/a> (EPC), a 47-member intergovernmental forum established in 2022 in response to Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>The diagnosis of the UK\u2019s current predicament is accurate. Its post-Brexit relationship with Europe remains unresolved, while weakening transatlantic ties and a gradual US strategic shift away from Europe increases space for threats from Russia and China.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to Balkan Insight Premium to read the full article.<\/p>\n<p>Please login to your account below if you are already a Premium Subscriber.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBuy Premium Subscription<\/p>\n<p>Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on BalkanInsight.com, including analyses, investigations, comments, interviews and more. Choose your subscription today and get unparalleled in-depth coverage of the Southern and Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"buyPremium\"><a title=\"Buy Premium Subscription\" href=\"https:\/\/balkaninsight.com\/premium-subscription\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buy Premium Subscription<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"contactPremium\">If you have trouble logging in or any other questions regarding you account, <a href=\"https:\/\/balkaninsight.com\/contact-us\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">please contact us<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Boles, a former Conservative MP and UK minister, made a big splash in a country still struggling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1157477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[8916,2000,10247,299,5187,1699,4609,2821,461,657,15,13494],"class_list":["post-1157476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-andy-burnham","tag-eu","tag-eu-enlargement","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-international-relations","tag-nato","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine","tag-united-kingdom","tag-western-balkans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117122158071136503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1157477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}