How Brexit is changing the EU | The Economist
Embed
- Published on Oct 17, 2019
- Brexit once seemed to pose an existential threat to the European Union. But Britain's withdrawal process has had some surprising results-especially when it comes to how other member states view the EU. Read more: econ.st/2MmthnW
Click here to subscribe to The Economist on TheXvid: econ.st/2xvTKdy
When the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016 some predicted it would be the beginning of the end for the EU. But since then, the EU and the way its members feel about it has changed. Could the Brexit referendum have actually benefited the European Union?
Andrea Venson is on a mission. Today he’s in Milan drumming up support for one of Europe’s newest political parties. Volt Europa is a pan-European movement with political parties in 14 different countries. But Andrea has his work cut out for him. Across Europe a third of people want to leave the EU and Italy has the third highest rate at 44%. But he also has good reason to hope because since 2016 optimism about the future of the European Union has grown by over 20% and people feel more attached to the EU than before the Brexit referendum. So what’s going on? Is the European Union really gaining popularity?
In some ways I think the EU is stronger because of Brexit. Brexit makes the EU feel like safety. It makes the EU feel like the organisation that protects them from the kind of chaos that ensues when you try to leave. And that really changes people’s attitudes towards what Europe is doing. Even the most Eurosceptic political parties are singing a different tune.
I can remember Marine Le Pen appearing at a press conference just after the British referendum result and on the wall behind her was a poster of two hands breaking free of shackles and it said “Brexit, next France”. If you look at what Marine Le Pen argues today I think she has almost done a sort of U-turn because what she is trying to advocate in France is not so much a Frexit than a reforming the EU from within. It’s a different sort of Euroscepticism because it’s not about leaving Europe, it’s about transforming Europe and trying to create a sort of Europe that she and her nationalist friends think suits their agenda better.
I think there were at least 15 populist parties across Europe, as of 2016 who advocated a referendum to leave the EU or just advocated leaving the EU. Maybe one or two of them still do, explicitly. It’s really almost dropped off the agenda.
It looked like the Brexit vote would pose an existential threat to the EU but it’s not the first time the EU has faced serious problems since it was established and some of the most serious ones have appeared in the past decade. In 2008 the world financial crisis led to recession in Europe. Countries like Ireland, Portugal and Greece had to be bailed out by the EU and were forced to implement austerity measures. Unemployment rates hit record highs and recessions deepened. This debt crisis was soon followed by the migrant crisis of 2015 when more than 1m refugees and migrants streamed into Europe. Many of them were fleeing war and chaos in the Middle East. No country was hit harder by both these upheavals than Greece. A few years later, Greece was on the frontline of the other European crisis- mass migration.
A recent poll revealed that Greeks, more so than any other European nationality think that their interests are not taken into account by the EU. Yet Greece hasn’t turned against the European Union. Since the Brexit referendum the share of Greeks wanting to leave the EU decreased by over 20% from almost half to just a third. Both the economic and migrant crisis in Europe have receded and the EU has survived.
That ambition for true unity is always going to be difficult. The EU is made up of 28 different countries each with its own history and interests. But what it has shown, is that it has a survival instinct. Over the past decade, every time that the EU has faced a crisis that looked like it might be an existential crisis it’s become abundantly clear that EU leaders have the political will to hold the union together. That European countries have so much at stake in the survival of this union that, ultimately, they do what needs to be done to hold it together. It’s just that they often do that at the very last minute.
For more from Economist Films visit: films.economist.com/
Check out The Economist’s full video catalogue: econ.st/20IehQk
Like The Economist on Facebook: TheEconomist/
Follow The Economist on Twitter: theeconomist
Follow us on Instagram: theeconomist
Follow us on Medium: medium.com/@the_economist
UK : I dont need you! i am a strong, independant country who can make his own decision! I want to leave!
UE: Sure, what are your term?
Uk: Instantly collapse
This is a So important choice but it depends on vote system. The vote system will destroy western country. A Warning from communist country.
EU = 65 years of peace in Europe!
Has the economist gotten even one story correct?
I guess they do not get it.
With global powers like china and usa arround, it's either the eu or europe would end up like, latin america, middle east, asia or maybe africa even.
People don't like change and will sit around like sheep while their liberty is stolen slowly. Go brexit!!
The liberty to not be able to move around freely around europe? The liberty to pay high taxes for every product you want to sell oversea? The liberty to not go to european school and university?
Long live the European Union! I would literally fight for it if necessary ! Just look at the past of Europe , our enemies are many but right now few are equal to our capabilities . Why destroy something that this continent fought for ? We need this Union. It has to be reformed but not destroyed
The Euro misconfiguration will crash the imperial edifice within the next 20 years. We can only hope the recriminations don't cause a war.
Brexit when UK United States Canada South Africa Australia all MSM speak the Same language
That’s because no one believes you can actually leave. But, if and when they successfully leave, as their people wish and have voted for, there will be a domino effect.
Well, it will be gone within 10 years
Can I also add, that IF the EU fundamentally changes into something that suits social, economic and democratic sanity, then the UK will not need to rejoin, because all other european countries would have effectively have become what the UK intends to become. Sovereignty will have returned to individual countries, doing business together, and trying their best to get along with each other, and the EU can go back to being little more than a fine dining club for semi retired civil servants and failed politicians.
The Economist is an EU rag, and has been for many decades. The reality is simple. If the EU are so happy to see the UK leave, then why are they making it so difficult for The UK to do so, let alone insisting on £ 39,000,000,000 for permission for the UK to even discuss the matter? The UK is not going to break up, but the EU may certainly do so, especially when the Germans start running out of credit. However nobody really knows what is going to happen. The UK had a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, and has correctly chosen the sea.
terrible psychotic music background, purpose of it?
Without the British the EU is better off.
So the nation that wanted to break the EU is breaking up claiming it has achieved its goal.
You couldn’t make it up.
UK : I dont need you! i am a strong, independant country who can make his own decision! I want to leave!
UE: Sure, what are your term?
Uk: Instantly collapse into political confusion.
the UK shot themselves in the foot for voting, not for a renegotiation of deals between the UK and Europe, but for an exit.
They should have voted for a "reevaluation" of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, so that leaves a lot of open space for negotiations rather than an all or nothing situation that they have got themselves into.
This time its focused in getting a refrigerator for UK. That Belarus and Ukraine get a state house lead by president of Russia, to not disturb Germany with new anything
Refrigerator? Ha im trying to remember.
It will be like soviet union after couple of years will fall apart
There's always one, isn't there.
Brexit benefits the EU and it benefits the UK
EU will have to pay more but Great Britain will be fine. For those worried it does not mean we can't cooperate if any one country gets threatened. Also The rest of Europe needs to pay their 2% to NATO or leave... Why Should we foot the bill for their protection.
Germany in recession /France all out on strike again, = latest pensions rip off ,2020 =the EU yr of COMPLIANCE 2021 = the EU set to UNIFY the price of energy = big price hike for the UK , 2030 /2040 EU to start to ban all piston engines , ban all domestic gas hot water /heating boilers /open fire places /wood burners /oil fired heating /hot water ,infact anything that uses a flame to make it work they are going to ban it .
Jet travel = Co2 they wont ban it but are going to tax it even more
Light aircraft use piston engines they wont ban them but will tax them hard .
The EU weaponised the climate & emissions/environmet as big tax /charges revenue if the EU shut down all of the factories they would still have billions in emissions taxes /charges & fines !
Air travel is tricky to tax for fuel because the aircraft can refuel in a non-EU country if they are forced, and then the EU doesn't make a penny on fuel. By the way, did you know that Germany has 23% of the Chinese piston engine car market but only 0.4% of their hybrid and electric car market? Germany are masters of the traditional car, but the electric car is completely different, so the competition is even, i.e. neither have a head start. China has blown them away though. So that's 400bn euros a year they are banning. Crazy eh?
The EU have a wonderful future without the British.
Then don't, They pay more and are in a weaker position because of it.
Well I do know what the European Union must do for Ireland. They must give Ireland €2000000000.00c. To help the country with it's problems with Pallotion, Homelessness, Home's being rented and that. And it needs to happen since Ireland is not that famous because it's landmarks are not that special. And the country has been living in peace for a while. So that is why it must be done. You can trust me since my aunt is Rose Conway Walsh the Irish Seneiter.
United we stand as one single land !
@:: possible but I do know for sure that one of us can not compete against China or the USA.
Apes together strong...
United you'll sink....
BRITAIN is the past Europe is the future.
I suspect that much of this is a wait and see mentality throughout Europe. If the UK prospers outside the EU then do not be surprised if this ignites a desire among others to follow suit. Much of the "chaos" that you speak of has been actively fermented by the EU itself, and for entirely self-serving purposes. Once the UK is outside the Union we will all gain a far clearer insight in the merits or otherwise of the EU.
@Romuald caffésérré The EU is not a "free market". The UK pays Euro 11bn net annually to the EU in membership contributions and the EU is not a "tax free zone", it merely offers "frictionless trading" at a price, that is not the same thing at all. Also, the UK is a considerable net importer from the EU. In 2018 the net deficit in traded goods with the EU was approximately Euro 100 billion. So your question might be equally be reversed to ask "what would the EU do without free access the UK market?". Germany, alone, enjoys a trading surplus of US$45 billion (2018 figures). Or Holland US£22.1 billion, or Belgium US$15.7 billion and Italy US$$12.6 billion. Your comment implies that the balances are similar, but in reality the UK is a massive export market to many member states of the EU and, as such, the EU has no more incentive to close itself off from the UK market than the UK does from the EU, unless economic suicide is top of the Brussels to-do list now.
@Rampant Pygmy Rampant Pygmy Reasonable chance to survive it, maybe. But to instantly prosper, with the 500 million european citizen market free-of-all-taxes gone? This represent 45% of all the export of the british economy, and around 50% of all their import. This goes against all the laws of logic and economy than to assume their will be no negative consequences for the UK, and im not even mentionning the political risk. Scotland litteraly voted to remain because they believed the NO would win, and now they feel betrayed, and want a rematch. Their is a now a high chance for the UK to split up.,and the country is more politically divided than ever.
@Romuald caffésérré I make no such assumption, but among all the EU economies it has a reasonable chance to do so if the political will to succeed is there.
"Assuming the UK prosper"
LOL
I‘m sorry.. but am I the only one who thinks that Brexit will rather break up the BRITISH Union than the European Union? Quite strange all this British media coverage about the EU, because in French, German and Spanish media nobody (!) believes that Brexit will end the EU. There‘s rather a very vivid discussion whether the UK will survive?! Given the Scottish independence mouvements and the northern Irish border conflicts, it seems far more logic to talk about a crackdown of the ...UK ?? I think there might be a different perspective on this topic in english speaking countries?
Nonsense!
quite true!
The new wannabe Soviet union that's European union has destroyed europe.Southdrn Europe has 40% unemployment. Bunch of undemocratic totalitarian freaks from Brussels.Peolle need to take their own responsibility and destiny in the own hands.
Nope. That's Naziuusk dictatorship
وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِ نَفْسُهُ ۖ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ
It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his soul makes to him: for We are nearer to him than (his) jugular vein.
quran islam
Death cult....
I think the EU makes a lot of sense economically but given the income disparity among the countries and cultural differences there will be friction among the constituents. having said that I think the UK should go ahead with Brexit. If the majority has voted for it and I feel even a greater number are amenable if not whole-heartedly in favor of it there is no point sticking around. On the contrary it may help remove the uncertainty and encourage UK residents to try and do better given they will comfort and confidence that they can control their destinies and make their choices. I would like to invite comments from actual residents on what they feel.
@:: but they get access to entire market of EU and their cooperation. It is not a bad deal. England still controlled its currency and immigration. Though I am surprised. Does the 18 countries you mentioned include Germany and France ?
Great Britain pays more into the EU coffers than 18 countries combined! How does that make financial sense for the Great British taxpayers?
Europe is the museum of the world.
Mausoleum
The EU will lose its SECOND largest net contributor, France & Germany have fun paying for the rest of the slackers in Europe! hahahaha
The EU will fall
Brext is the best thing to happen it has shown how undemacratic and I it hates counttrys that have showen it as only run for Germany
I have never understood why the UK and Ireland have such vastly different views on the EU.
Great Britain pays more into the EU coffers than 18 countries combined..... Ireland gets hand outs from the corrupt EU (Great British taxpayers money, albeit indirectly)....
The EU is a financial basket case......they have milked the UK.....
Brought to you by George Soros .- and a hoard of Lizards.
The Soviet Union hated the EEC, which became the Eu, more than NATO. Well, now, Putin has Brexit fracturing the EU and his troops now control NATO's southernmost border, and so his encirclement and weakening of Europe is succeeding.
This video is made by the Economist and not objective. The Rothschild funded Economist is a globalist journal. When the UK leaves,the main leadership of the EU will try to implement ever greater union and control from the centre. The ultimate aim is the nation-states will be phased out and just become "regions" of the EU,semi-autonomous only.The Visigrad countries will resist this ,especially Poland and Hungary,as they are basically nationalist in outlook.Mass non-EU immigration is just a tool,being used to destroy the identity of the nation-states,and this will become a huge area of conflict.
Since the European Union was founded, all of Europe is weakening, I don't know, do you see the Middle East getting stronger when they compete with fellow Middle East?
EUrabia
The one thing that has amused me about The Economist, given it's supposed 'expertise' on such matters is it's blind adherence to the idea that Brexit is totally wrong and must be stopped at all costs. The truth is that Brexit even in 2016 was and remains irrelevant because leaving or staying within the EU is not that important, it is the radical change in the global economy that trumps all arguments and we need to prepare for. So does the EU but it won't sadly and probably be stalled by French farmers and air traffic controllers if it tried anyway.
If you believe that the global economy looking 15 years ahead will be much the same as in the 15 years past then believing in Remain for the UK would be a logical choice, but if you believe that you really haven't been watching how the world works and how moving to a major carbon reduction program on a global scale will and already is bringing about radical change. Ask yourself whether the current problems world wide in the automotive industry as an example, is a temporary cyclical downturn or is it a harbinger of major change ? Ask yourself whether you today with your own cash would you buy an ICE or EV car brand new and feel happy you have made the right choice, in ICE a technology that will become outlawed soon and in EVs a product that is all too obviously immature and lacks a charging infrastructure to make it viable for the majority.
The EU given the deliberate hash it has made of the Brexit negotiations intended to make Brexit "too dificult" has of course reduced the ardour for attempting it elsewhere within the EU but that changes nothing because the EU signed its own death warrant at the end of the last century when it launched the Euro without creating the environment for it to prosper. That the EU will unravel in the near future is a certainty because few eurozone countries can afford to live in the same currency with Germany and financial transfers between German States being fraught, transfers between eurozone countries, impossible which is what it would take. As for the UK being outside of the EU there is the advantage of being able to respond to the global economic changes by restructuring its economy without falling foul of some Brussels directive on this or that. The big advantage being that the dithering and internal Remainer opposition within the UK over these past 3 years has imposed on the UK and its citizens the financial losses that leaving the EU might impose on it already, from here on there is only one way and that is UP.
I think the way the EU handled BREXIT and the way they have cause the UK political system to fail has scared many countries and many people. A clean break straight away would have been the best policy and taken all the doubt out of the negotiations. There is a reason why there is water between the UK and Europe, I am shocked that Ireland has not woken up to this, instead their lorries increase our bad air quality as they use the UK to get to Europe and back.
This film is pro EU ?
PROPERganda.
What if the EU passes a bill saying no one could leave after a said date, period.
Since it goes against the current european convention, that would recquire the agreement of all the 28 member of the union, UK included. Litteraly impossible.
what a load of anti brexit propaganda, we have suffered three and a half years of constant brainwashing by the right wig media and the EU has interfered in British politics.
The MSM are Marxist..... Not right wing...
Um... right wing? You realise its the right who are in favour of brexit and left are against it...
Boring and to political. EU have no monies. Still getting resources from post colonial countries.
Germany tried to make Europe a single country twice - this time, they've simply changed their tactics by aligning themselves with everything the Nazis were against, but they have the same goal.
@Julia A Germany did not wanted any Empire , they join ww1 to to defend the Austrian-Hungarian Empire from agression , and ww2 they wanted to unified Germany in one single nation.
They didnt try to make Europe a single country they tried to establish a German Empire.Germany would rule a series of serf territories.
Brexit first then dismantle the rest of the globalist satanic club
The Swedish democrats wasn't the only Eu sceptic party. Vänsterpartiet (Leftparty) Was againgst EU in 2016, But both changed direction and look "positive" on The EU. It's what it's says. But I dont think so at all
My guess is not at all.
Because useful idiots with the help of Roland Rudd multimillionaire people's vote anti democratic set up will cheat us out of democracy
deMOCKracy writ large
Volt Europa, DieM25 : successors of destructive Pan-European Movement of Kallergi. No more globalism, NATIONALISM!
England .Ireland .Germany. Italy. and more turning into third world shitholes overrun by economic refugees that we can't afford. Our governments putting refugees before our own people . No social housing for native people to Europe.our government needs hanged for treason crimes against our native people down with the EU now....give us back our beautiful European countries
The Un elected controllers of the EU have massive financial support in their efforts to maintain their controls and promote the scam as a cause. Anyone under the age of 45 has only ever known EU control. So nothing else appears to offer them security. To them for their homelands to suddenly have to go it alone must be quite frightening. Hence the young Britons so fervently anti brexit. To them a country running alone frightens them. If the EU operated in a democratic manner and leaders were elected by All members by election, would make it seem so much more democratic than Communist by simply Controllers appearing out of thin air. So the British are lucky, they started leaving when they did. As another ten years and anyone who has lived in a sovereign nation will automatically be outnumbered by the communists. I can see a time when theworld becomes communist. With three or four Nations only. Theyll link, China Euroland , Africabia and America. FIfty years could see it done. When Euroland and China, which will be the first link across the globe, simply over powering resistence from the rest. Who will India link with ? I cant see them as a match with Russia. In fact, I suspect Russia will automatically join the Euroland and China with quite historical connections as well as land and sea.
These Zoomers have been indoctrinated by the Marxist warehouses that now pass for schools and universities in the corrupt EU.
What on earth will wars look like then ? And there will be wars. Can you imagine a global conflict ? Wow. The farming area at war with the city and manufacturing area. All up in arms at the controllers hogging the only unpolluted area left on earth. The war is bound to be about pollution. Whose causing it and why and why cant it be spread out instead of only one third of the population working in the dying zone.
when i was young i voted to go into the common market now as i grow older i find how disruptive it is, not the ideal that i voted for when i was young take care what you vote for,we in uk have had a second change , you will never have that opertunity
@ourorboros2 Yes, a man crawling around in a desert is pretty independent and nobody disrupts his routine.
Nigel - BTW you don't seem to write as if you were educated in the UK!
@skippyshake exactly, I just hate how disruptive multinational scientific endeavor is, look at projects like ITER, very disruptive!
Under the EU we have had the longest period of peace in Western Europe since Roman times...gosh such disruption!
While there are rumours at the end of the day, the octopus' tentacles are too strong and as one of the largest economies the world the EU isnt going to let the jewel in its multicultural crown get away🤔
@Alfa&Omega 00000 Great Britain (the jewel) pays more into the EU coffers than 18 countries combined....
What jewel are you talking about?
Brexit woke the EEC- to make changes that they will never contemplate.
Only by creating a unified EU military can Europe militarily stand on the level of the US andChina. Europe needs the EU to look out for its interests.
@Aliensinnoh Then you'll understand that we prefer to stand with our blood brothers and sisters in the Anglosphere countries, NOT the corrupt EU....
@:: I'm from the United States.
You can count Great Britain OUT! We will forge an alliance with our brother's and sister's in the Anglosphere countries....
The chaos isn’t from leaving, it’s from people going behind everyone’s back and making sure we don’t leave
If other countries have no dignity or pride and are prepared to grovel to the EU that's fine , we just don't like doing it.