Zócalo Public Square

On June 23, 2016, British citizens will be asked, “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?” On the surface, this would seem to be a simple yes-or-no question. But what are voters supposed to take into consideration when casting their votes? What does the European Union mean to them? And what exactly does “remaining” or “leaving” even mean, in the context of the U.K.’s ties to the continent? Those were the themes explored at a Zócalo/Democracy International event at the Royal Institution in London. The discussion was moderated by The New York Times International News Editor Sewell Chan and featured four panelists: University of Edinburgh political scientist Laura Cram, longtime German and European Parliament member Gerald Häfner, Open Europe Co-Director Stephen Booth, and London School of Economics legal scholar Damian Chalmers.