Queen Elizabeth II again made political comments when she cautioned British and German politicians over the \u2018dangers of division\u2019 at a state banquet in Berlin. Buckingham Palace has denied the statement was political.<\/p>\n
The British monarch espoused the benefits of cooperation between European nations as she remembered the \u201cworst\u201d events of the continent\u2019s history during her speech on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Her comments have been interpreted as endorsing the UK\u2019s membership of the EU, but also as a warning to Germany not to entertain Russia. However, Palace officials denied that the Queen was expressing a political stance.<\/p>\n
The Queen\u2019s unusual intervention into European politics coincided with the publication of a report suggesting a British exit from the EU could take a decade to negotiate and be fraught with economics risk.<\/p>\n
The monarch was hosted by 75-year-old German President Joachim Gauck, who was once an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.<\/p>\n
From the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron and the Euroskeptic Foreign Minister Philip Hammond were in attendance at the banquet.<\/p>\n
Speaking directly to Gauck, the Queen said: \u201cIn our lives, Mr. President, we have seen the worst, but also the best of our continent. We have witnessed how quickly things can change for the better. But we know that we must work hard to maintain the benefits of the post-war world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that division in Europe is dangerous and that we must guard against it in the west as well as in the east of our continent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a show of agreement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have nodded vigorously during the Queen\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n
The monarch\u2019s comments in Berlin follow a carefully scripted intervention in British politics in the run up to the Scottish independence referendum, in which she asked voters to \u201cthink very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauck emphasized the importance of Britain\u2019s role in building democracy in Germany after the war, expressing his country\u2019s enduring gratitude.<\/p>\n
Research by former UK Foreign Office chief economist Gregor Irwin indicates a \u2018Brexit\u2019 would damage business in the UK and further afield, impacting on the Netherlands, Ireland and Cyprus particularly hard.<\/p>\n
Irwin\u2019s report concludes a Brexit would damage Britain\u2019s regulatory influence, dampen the attractiveness of the City of London, deter inward investment and hobble business activity through protracted uncertainty.<\/p>\n
The UK stands to lose the most from Brexit in economic terms, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Queen Elizabeth II again made political comments when she cautioned British and German politicians over the \u2018dangers of division\u2019 at a state banquet in Berlin. Buckingham Palace has denied the statement was political. The British monarch espoused the benefits of cooperation between European nations as she remembered the \u201cworst\u201d events of the continent\u2019s history during … Continue reading “Queen warns EU against split with Britain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12003,2444,186,70,4623],"class_list":["post-19536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-banquet","tag-berlin","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-queen-elizabeth-ii"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19537,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19536\/revisions\/19537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}