Abstract
This chapter looks at the possible impacts of Brexit on specific European Union (EU) policies and priorities. It concludes that there are unlikely to be fundamental shifts. Policy areas such as development of the single market (notably the digital single market), further progress on the capital markets and banking unions, on the energy union and on fighting climate change, will continue to have broad support. Defence cooperation will be given a higher emphasis than before. Divisions will remain, however, in many areas, including the general direction of macro-economic policy, the approximation of taxation, the extent of EU solidarity, practical measures to distribute the burden of migration, and the nature of EU foreign policy—in particular in its Eastern Neighbourhood, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
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Notes
- 1.
See Chapter 4 above.
- 2.
At a conference on 8 January 2018 on the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), cited in Herszenhorn, D., Politico of 8 January 2018.
- 3.
At a news conference in Brussels on the MFF ON, 10 January 2018.
- 4.
Future Financing of the EU. Final report and recommendations of the High Level Group on Own Resources, December 2016.
- 5.
The Report of the Study Group on the role of public finance in European integration, volumes 1 and 2 (April 1977), Brussels, prepared by a group of independent experts set up by the Commission known familiarly as the McDougall report, and still very much worth the read.
- 6.
IFOP, Fondation Jean Jaures, Fondation Européenne d’Études Progressistes, Juillet 2016, “Les Européens et le Brexit”, op. cit.
- 7.
European Commission: “Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union-Policy Package”, 6 December 2017.
- 8.
An eloquent analysis of some of the policy contradictions, and of possible consequent problems ahead for the EU is contained in Barry Eichengreen’s Letter from America “Is Renewed EU Optimism Justified?”. Intereconomics, vol. 53, January/February 2018, no. 1, pp. 47–48.
- 9.
European Commission White Paper on the Future of Europe, op. cit.
- 10.
V4 statement, op. cit.
- 11.
V4 statement, op. cit.
- 12.
V4 Statement on the Future of Europe, op. cit.
- 13.
“European Pillar of Social Rights” solemnly adopted by Council Commission and Parliament.
- 14.
Especially in certain Member States; as pointed out above in Chapter 3. Climate change is the second highest area of EU policy concern for Swedish citizens, cited by 37% of its citizens (see Standard Eurobarometer 88, op. cit).
- 15.
Mortkowitz, S. and Gray, A. (30 January 2018), interview in Politico.
- 16.
As reported in the Politico interview, op. cit.
- 17.
With Serbia and Montenegro currently at the forefront: if they both eventually join and are followed by Bosnia, Macedonia (perhaps with a different name), Albania and possibly even Kosovo, (20% of the members of the enlarged EU might then consist of former component parts of the one single state of Yugoslavia!).
- 18.
“Strengthening European Identity Through Education and Culture, The Commission’s Contribution to the Leaders’ Working Lunch”, Gothenburg, 17 November 2017.
- 19.
“Declaration: Bringing the EU Forward in 2018”. (10 January 2018), Summit of the Southern European countries, Rome, op. cit.
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Jacobs, F.B. (2018). EU Policies and Priorities in a Post-Brexit Era. In: The EU after Brexit . Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77279-0_8
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