Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

What The EU Really Thinks About Brexit

Denis MacShane 22nd November 2018

Denis MacShane

Denis MacShane

A major problem in the Brexit debate since June 2016 is how 95 percent of reporting and discussion in the UK media has been about internal Westminster politics. Occasionally space is found for a brief interview with a minister or politician from an EU-27 government but only on condition that they speak perfect English.

Pro-Brexit Conservative MPs are allowed to make demonstrably false statements on the BBC that German car manufacturers will tell Chancellor Merkel to agree to London’s demands or that there are no border checks between Switzerland and its EU neighbours.

Now the “UK in Changing Europe” team at King’s College, London has produced a report listing how different EU countries see Brexit. It demolishes many myths within the Brexit view in London.

Two professors from Denmark write that “the key position for Denmark is that the UK cannot continue to ‘fudge’’’ and that Mrs May’s much-touted “Chequers plans has not significantly changed the position of Denmark.”

Christian Lequesne from Sciences-Po in Paris explains how Brexit forced Marine Le Pen to change her policy advocating withdrawal from the euro ahead of her contest with Emmanuel Macron to be president of France in May 2017. For the Front National (now renamed Rassemblement National): “Brexit is seen as a British idiosyncrasy that France should not follow.” For the French government “Macron has always been clear that the UK cannot implement a single market à la carte” and a “new referendum leading to the reverse of the Brexit process would find support in Paris.”

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

In Germany, Magdeburg Professor Eva Heidbreder insists: “The dominant position in the German economy, including in particular the car manufacturing industry, is that the single market is more important than the British one.” She also reports on the bemusement of the German government at Chancellor Philip Hammond turning up in Berlin in January 2018 but not meeting his opposite number as he tried to go over Mrs Merkel’s head to appeal to German public opinion to back the UK line on Brexit.

London placed great hopes on the eurosceptic Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary, sending Prince Andrew, Boris Johnson and Greg Hands (both ministers have since walked out of Mrs May government) to schmooze Hungarians into backing the UK on Brexit. But, as Robert Cheshi, writes, “Hungary is committed to the unity of the EU-27 and the EU-27 are represented by the European Commission and therefore it would be inappropriate to respond unilaterally” initiatives or overtures from London.

Professor Brigid Laffan does appear on British media as one of Ireland’s leading EU experts. She is scathing about Johnson’s comparison of the ultra-sensitive “challenge of the border to the collection of congestion charges between Camden and Westminster” or Jacob Rees-Mogg’s suggestion of a return to border checks “as we had during the Troubles.”

Anti-Europeans in London took heart from the arrival in power in Italy of two populist parties which built their appeal on the kind of denigration of Brussels which has been standard fare in many UK newspapers this century.

But Professors Marco Brunazzo and Vincent Della Sala assert: “The Conte government would be ill-advised to risk losing the little influence it has (in Brussels) on an issue such as Brexit that is not politically salient nor a priority for its political base.’’ The new populist government “is not very attentive to details or to slow methodical work that is necessary to build alliances and coalition around complex issues such as Brexit” and that “the populists in power have not created a powerful ally for Brexit.”


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Ramūnas Vilpišaukas, Director of Vilnius University’s Institute for International Relations, notes that “Lithuanian exports have slowed since 2016 mostly due to the devaluation of sterling.” It is forgotten in London that the Brexit devaluation was seen as trade manipulation in the single market and did not create much sympathy for Brexit. In addition, the Chequers proposals are seen in East Europe as allowing “UK business to gain a competitive advantage in view of the powers it would grant to UK Customs and regulatory institutions.”

In Poland, also a country given to Brussels-bashing, there is little support for London, writes Professor Natasza Styczyńska of Krakow’s Jagellonian University. The rights of up to 1m Poles and 40,000 small and micro-Polish enterprises set up in the UK are a priority. Poland’s Europe Minister, Konrad Szymański, insists the rights of “self-employed individuals and entrepreneurs” are also at stake and these rights (of freedom of movement, working and living in the UK) “should also apply to the families of employees and company owners.”

According to Matts Braun of Södertörn University, visits by Prince William and his wife, also sent to Sweden by the FCO on a royal charm offensive, changed nothing and the clumsy handling by the government of “the Brexit negotiations so far have strengthened Swedish support for EU membership.” Until Brexit Swedish diplomats “had British diplomats as preferred first partners for consultations. This era has gone. The position of the UK for Sweden will be different whatever the outcome of the negotiations and then it will not matter that Theresa May dances to ABBA.”

Denis MacShane

Denis MacShane was a Labour MP (1994-2012) and served as UK minister of Europe. He writes regularly on European politics and Brexit.

Home ・ Politics ・ What The EU Really Thinks About Brexit

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

defence,europe,spending Ukraine and Europe’s defence spendingValerio Alfonso Bruno and Adriano Cozzolino
North Atlantic Treaty Organization,NATO,Ukraine The Ukraine war and NATO’s renewed credibilityPaul Rogers
transnational list,European constituency,European elections,European public sphere A European constituency for a European public sphereDomènec Ruiz Devesa
hydrogen,gas,LNG,REPowerEU EU hydrogen targets—a neo-colonial resource grabPascoe Sabido and Chloé Mikolajczak
Big Tech,Big Oil,Big Pharma,agribusiness,wealth,capital,Oxfam,report,inequality,companies Control the vampire companiesJayati Ghosh

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube