The most doubts is cast by the status of the referendum itself, which, as far as is known, was recommendatory, but not prescriptive. But recommendations could be taken to heart, or could be ignored.
A good wording has been already invented in the European Parliament: ‘the issues affecting the European Union as a whole cannot be put to vote in an individual member state’. This, of course, refers to the referendum in Great Britain as well.
There are more than enough examples of ignoring the popular will in Europe. So, in the course of referendum for independence of Catalonia in 2009 96.2% of the Catalonians voted for separation from Spain. And, what? Nothing, Barcelona subordinates to Madrid as before.
If such as straight as the line ignoring of vox populi does not suit, then you can re-vote. As it was done, for example, in Denmark, where people in 1992 confronted the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty (this document laid the foundation of the European Union as it is today), but in 1993 re-voted for. That was the case in Ireland, which in 2008 voted against the Treaty of Lisbon, but in 2009 re-voted for.
In this list the new Brexit referendum does not look like something outrageous.
But that’s in the future. In the meantime it is necessary to gain time in taking irrevocable decisions, alleviate the first shock from the voting results, to ‘wash away’ the issue. And the next, David Cameron, who initially bravely announced his resignation, says that the Brexit process will start only after appointment of a new prime minister. Which is logical. Illogical is that the British will not have the new prime minister before autumn. Then he will be getting up to speed, then prepare necessary documents on leaving the EU... And then either the Shah will die or the donkey will turn its toes.
In parallel, the head of the British Ministry of Finance George Osborne declared that the government of Great Britain should not file the application for leaving the European Union unless and until it has a clear vision of the model of its future relationship with the community. What is ‘clear vision’, what kind of relationship model will be between the island and the continent? Nobody in Europe has any clue, and it means that the exit issue may be postponed for a while.
For how long? Perhaps, forever.
