One reason why some people are uncomfortable with the idea of the UK withdrawing from the EU by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and taking the EEA/EFTA route is because they believe that an EU member state might announce a veto in advance, thus completely discrediting and nullifying the proposal.



This, however, isn’t true. Negotiations under Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty do not require unanimity

from the EU side, as they are subject to Qualified Majority Voting. So a veto is not available to any member state.



The Commission is in no position to veto anything of this sort either, as these Article 50 negotiations are outside its remit, being reserved to the European Council.



So any pretended advance “veto” would be even more bogus than the one Mr.Cameron announced a while ago. In that case, treaty change whilst within EU membership does require unanimity by the Inter Governmental Conference but affairs had not reached the stage where a veto was possible.

Of course, the British press and media were largely taken in but, in the heightened degree of scrutiny during a referendum campaign, it is more likely (one hopes) that they would take the trouble to inform themselves.