According to Politico, back in May officials received a memo outlining how to avoid using the term “Brexit” when referring to the June 23 referendum in Britain. The memo followed a series of meetings where Commission’s staff were told they were not allowed to use the term publicly.
 
Instead, the Commission proposed alternatives such as “British situation” or “British referendum”. Politico reports the term Brexit is still used in internal meetings and the ban does not cover commissioners themselves.
 
The memo obtained by Politico provides specific examples on how to address questions and comments about the Brexit, without ever spelling the word. In fact, the Commission spokesperson’s service has managed to avoid the term at its daily midday briefings and “Brexit” does not appear as a search result on the Commission’s internal video server since February 2016, when it was referred to as a political term in relation to a summit on reforms aimed at avoiding a Brexit. As expected, EU officials also avoid using the term online, favoring the hashtag #UKinEU on social media.
 
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