Nationalists emboldened by EU crisis, debt pact

Simon Tilford, chief economist at the CER, said the emboldening of eurosceptics in Britain could have relevance for other countries as well. "Ongoing crises could turn people against the EU. But closer integration is going to be unpopular, too," he said.

Tilford said it's not impossible that attitudes will turn eurosceptic also in southern Europe if Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy get stuck in a cycle of stagnation, rising debt, high unemployment and pressure to hand over economic policymaking. "That could prove poisonous in terms of domestic politics and that would feed into the hands of anti-EU forces," he said.