Episode one tells how David Cameron was pushed by the Conservative Party’s fixation with Europe to call the Brexit referendum. Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan reveal how they sought to turn up the heat on the Prime Minister. For the first time on television, William Hague, George Osborne and Nick Clegg reprise the arguments inside Government that led to the decision which sparked the biggest political crisis since World War Two. Osborne warned against a gamble that could be a "disaster for Britain", but Hague thought there was no other option, saying: "this was coming. Either we had to lead that or be the victims of it". European Presidents Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk reveal how Cameron negotiated with EU Leaders over the concessions he felt he needed to win the referendum - and how the Europeans saw it. Cameron’s closest advisers - including his Press Secretary Gabby Bertin and Ambassador to the EU Ivan Rogers - describe the increasingly desperate negotiations, including a last-minute push to get the concessions which would ensure that the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, would back remain. As he runs up against Europe’s leaders, Cameron comes unstuck. French Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Angela Merkel’s top Europe advisers and other key players recall warning Cameron against picking a fight, and how their vision of the European Union differed from his. Ultimately, Cameron couldn't deliver enough to win the referendum. In a final, emotional farewell to his fellow EU leaders, there is regret on both sides.
Episode Two, Going For Broke, takes us deep inside crucial European Councils as the leaders and their Ministers try to avert financial disaster. It is a clash between the cautious Angela Merkel and the feisty Nicolas Sarkozy over how to deal with the near-bankruptcy of Greece. The crisis spreads to threaten the euro itself. It begins when Prime Minister George Papandreou comes into office to discover the disastrous state of the country’s finances. The fate of the EU’s most ambitious project, the single currency, rested on how the EU leaders dealt with the problem. The story includes the furious row between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, another Frenchman, over who should pay the bill. Those present also describe how President Barack Obama brought the German Chancellor to tears. It’s a story that would end, temporarily, with billions of Euros being pumped into the economy, riots against austerity, and two democratically elected Prime Ministers resigning. The crisis would explode back onto the European agenda in January 2015 with the election of the Alexis Tsipras’ radical left-wing Syriza government in Greece. With just a month before Greece again ran out of bailout money, his appointment of Marxist professor Yanis Varoufakis won Greece no friends in European capitals, especially Berlin. After receiving a bailout extension until the end of June, Alexis Tsipras shocked his fellow leaders by calling a referendum on the terms offered by the European Union. Grexit looked a real possibility, as more than 60 percent of Greeks voted against the EU’s terms. Yet instead Tsipras decided to return to Brussels to seek another bailout. With the help of French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Italian Renzi, Alexis Tsipras faced down German Chancellor Angela Merkel and agreement was reached. Greece would remain in the Eurozone.
This episode exposes how Europe’s leaders fought over how to deal with the migration crisis that reached its peak in the summer of 2015. As hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrive from North Africa and Syria, Europe divides. The decision by chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, to keep Germany's borders open tests the fundamental principles of the EU to the limit. Top leaders, from Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker to prime ministers Matteo Renzi and Mark Rutte, and president Francois Hollande, reveal some of the biggest clashes the European Council has ever witnessed. As Europe is split over whether to share the burden of migrants or toughen up borders, a controversial deal with Turkey – aided by shutting down borders to keep migrants out of Europe – brings the crisis out of control. But the political damage is grave.
