On June 23, Britons go to the polls in a nationwide referendum to determine whether their country remains a member of the European Union.

Should a Brexit occur, a two-year transition period would follow but the costs to Britain and Malta would kick in quickly. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that investor confidence and financial markets would eventually be shaken, stifling economic growth. A Brexit might also prompt another vote on independence by Scotland and the break-up of the UK.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Front in France, has already stated that should Britain leave the EU, this would encourage a similar referendum to be held on France if she was elected President. In the Netherlands, too, Geert Wilders, the leader of the anti-immigrant Freedom Party, has said that the EU will be finished once a Brexit occurs.

Meanwhile, for Vladimir Putin of Russia, the collapse of the European project would be payback for what he views bitterly as Western triumphalism when the Soviet Union was dissolved in the early 1990s.

Honestly, I find the chances of the European Union pulling together and regaining its self-confidence as being very slim indeed, unfortunately.