&gt; special treatment as granted by the other EU member states. It did not adopt the Euro, it does not participate in Schengen, and it can pick and choose from within the areas of security, justice and police cooperation as it pleases<p>All of the european north is not in the Euro, other countries (e.g bulgaria) are not in Shengen, and every other country has the same options too choose (with consequences). There is nothing special about the UK in the EU, as much as Cameron wants to claim the opposite. Despite political gestures, the UK has no other option than to stay in the EU, the opposite would be inane. As the author himself suggests, if they left, they would soon find themselves wanting back, for purely practical reasons. They are not even a barrier to a closer union, there are other more important issues.