President Obama is asking people not to succumb to “hysteria” following Britain’s vote last week to leave the European Union.
“I think that the best way to think about this is, a pause button has been pressed on the project of full European integration,” Obama said in an interview NPR’s Steve Inskeep published Tuesday.
“I would not overstate it,” the president added. “There’s been a little bit of hysteria post-Brexit vote, as if somehow NATO’s gone, the trans-Atlantic alliance is dissolving, and every country is rushing off to its own corner. That’s not what’s happening.”
Following the vote, stocks have fallen around the world, and Secretary of State John Kerry has already met with leaders in Europe to assess next steps.
Obama said he respects the vote, and said it’s one that “speaks to the ongoing changes and challenges that are raised by globalization.”
The vote was a reaction to a ballooning EU “that was probably moving faster and without as much consensus as it should have,” he explained.
“I think this will be a moment when all of Europe says, ‘Let’s take a breath and let’s figure out how do we maintain some of our national identities, how do we preserve the benefits of integration and how do we deal with some of the frustrations that our own voters are feeling,'” the president predicted.
Obama said he does not anticipate “major cataclysmic changes” as a result of the so-called Brexit. Instead, the United Kingdom will likely become like Norway, Obama said, which is not an EU member, but is still a United States ally that aligns itself “on almost every issue with Europe and us.”
“They are a place that is continually supporting the kinds of initiatives internationally that we support, and, if over the course of what is going to be at least a two year negotiation between England and Europe, Great Britain ends up being affiliated to Europe like Norway is, the average person is not going to notice a big change,” the president explained.
