In 2019-20, the EU remained by far the largest economic partner of the United Kingdom by all definitions: exports, imports, goods and services.
The impact of closing the borders across the Channel at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to assess. But a few clues make it possible to draw up an initial assessment.
Due to Brexit and multiple lockdowns, hundreds of thousands of expats have left Britain in 2020.
Without an agreement, it will be very difficult to export cars, medicines or Welsh lamb to the continent. Companies operating in these sectors are trying to prepare as best as they can.
Who exports and who imports? A German economics think tank, the Ifo institute, has looked at the interdependencies between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The most recent research suggests that Brexit will further deepen Britain’s already yawning regional inequalities, especially between London and the North of England.
The handful of trade deals that the British government has so far concluded with non-EU countries will not fully compensate for the loss of the European market.
With two months to go before the end of the transition period, the Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels are stuck. Aurélien Antoine, professor of public law at the University of Saint-Etienne and director of the Brexit Observatory, deciphers what is at stake in the coming weeks.
While some of the effects of Brexit are still difficult to assess, the Erasmus+ exchange programme has already suffered the consequences. However, British universities wish to maintain their participation in the European programme.
At a micro level, the exit of British MEPs impacted on one of the tools that we developed to keep track of the European debate. Since we have created it, #brexit has constantly been among the most popular hashtags used by MEPs.