Europe launches reform "reflection" after Brexit shock

Hoping to stave off a broader political crisis after Britain's shock decision to leave the EU, European leaders agreed on Wednesday to spend the next nine months developing proposals for an overhaul of the bloc amid deep divisions between its members.

Disillusion with the EU has risen sharply following years of economic weakness and after a record influx of refugees and series of deadly attacks by Islamic militants.

The problems have fueled the sense that elites in Brussels and other European capitals are ineffective and out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.

Last week, the anger bubbled over in Britain's Brexit vote, which threw six decades of closer European integration into reverse and raised fears of a domino effect on the continent, where anti-EU, xenophobic parties are on the rise.

http://in.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-europe-idINKCN0ZF1YG