The United Kingdom in The European Union integration process: Future of deepening and enlargement policies after referendum on brexit

The UK's view of EU integration has evolved due to historical and geographical factors. The United Kingdom, which did not participate in European integration as a founding member starting with the ECSC in 1951, carried out an anti-integration policy with the alternative intergovernmental EFTA structuring that was created against EU integration. EFTA's scope and weakness for its members in the face of ECSC, EURATOM and EEC integration has led to a policy change to participate in European integration in order to maximize the interests of the United Kingdom. The UK's EEC membership has not changed its view of integration, and has implemented policies that prevent or slow the completion of integration within the Union to date. That the United Kingdom, with European skepticism and weaker European affiliation compared to other members, decided to leave the Brexit referendum in June 2016, which included leaving the EU, has confirmed once again that the UK's political elites and their people's view of integration is more than purely self-interest. The UK joined EU integration process very late due to its anti-integration and anti-federalism motives and this adversely affected the integration policy of UK in the EU accession process. When compared to the other major European countries, the UK has been the first country to decide to join the EU integration after founded and during the Brexit referendum where it was understood that this integration process did not transform the UK. The Brexit decision shows that the impact of Europeanization on the UK is low. In this thesis, the future of EU deepening and enlargement policies after the leaving of the United Kingdom, which contributes to EU integration with a liberal intergovernmental approach, has been evaluated. After the Brexit referendum, EU deepening policies are expected to have a higher priority than enlargement policies since the EU will primarily deal with its internal problems. In the study first the UK's impact on EU integration has been examined, and then the course of post-Brexit EU deepening and enlargement policies for the further development of federal Europe has been discussed. Keywords: the United Kingdom, the European Union, Brexit, Deepening and Enlargement, the Federal Europe, Europeanization.