Members of the public take part in a kiss chain at a stay in, pro EU Referendum event in Parliament Square, Central London, Britain, 19 June 2016. Britons will vote to stay or leave the European Union on 23 June.[Photo/IC]

On June 23rd, the UK’s EU referendum will achieve finality. No matter whether the UK votes to leave or not, the referendum itself has exposed the public mood of Euroscepticism. It has been increasingly hard for a declining EU to keep its member states together. At the same time, difficulties breed opportunities. The EU referendum will further promote Sino-EU cooperation.

The EU’s Difficulties

First of all, the euro-zone economy has recovered at an unsatisfactorily slow pace since the 2008 financial crisis. According to statistics released by the Eurostat, in the euro-zone, the GDP per capita at market price has only increased 3.7 percent in the past 8 years, while in the past 7 years, it has increased 13 percent in the US and 95Percent in China. In addition, the global market shares of the EU’s import and export trade are still blow the pre-crisis level, without a sign of steady growth. The EU used to bank on America to help it get rid of economic dilemmas, but the TTIP (Q: what does TTIP stand for?) impasse disappoints it. In the world economy, the power of the EU is declining.

Second, the severest refugee crisis since World War II has been an unbearable burden for the EU. The latest data from the UNHCR (Q: what does this acronym mean – something with the United Nations??) have shown that more than 1.2 million refugees and illegal immigrants have reached Europe. The maximum receptivity of the EU, however, is 72,000. As a result, there must be rounds of negotiations (Q: with who?), during which the EU will inevitably make concessions and even sacrifices. After all, the EU is incapable of absorbing so many refugees or dealing with the possibly of triggering problems, such as employment problems, racial conflicts and even social unrest, when the EU itself has been lacking in social vitality.

Third, the international influence of NATO has been reduced in recent years because of the challenges faced by the US-NATO relationship. On the one hand, the US has been unsatisfied with the low levels of European defense spending. Only four members of NATO meet the minimum contribution threshold of 2% of GDP, while Washington provides 75% of NATO’s budget. US unease has raised concerns about NATO’s viability. On the other hand, US attention is moving away from Europe as emerging powers are shifting the global configuration. For instance, America’s pivot to Asia-Pacific has placed US willingness and capacity to commit to Europe’s security in doubt. NATO’s decline has been unveiled by its embarrassments in handling regional disputes, such as the crises in Ukraine and Libya.

In the face of difficulties, the EU is splitting. It’s increasingly hard to reconcile member states’ different economic and political demands. The UK’s EU referendum is exactly the mirror of the fragmentation. EU countries have gradually realized that no single power, neither the EU nor the US, could bring them out of trouble. With this background, the in-depth cooperation with China will provide new impetuses to the development of the EU.