The UK and the EU officially implemented their new trade relationship last week after the end of the Brexit transition period on January 1st. After more than four years of arduous negotiations, all eyes are now on the future of London and Brussels as Europe prepares for major changes. Many Europeans have predicted that Brexit will cause Britain to lose influence and ultimately be worse off, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain with its “amazing success” will have new status.
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However, experts also analyzed the effects of Brexit on the EU’s long-term future.
Charles Grant, founder of the Center for European Reforms, predicts that without British influence, Germany will gain even more power in the bloc.
However, this could ultimately lead to complications for Chancellor Merkel and her successor as it could expose the country to the wrath of other member states.
Mr Grant said in 2016: “The Germans themselves are particularly dissatisfied with Brexit, and not just because they fear that other EU countries – now even more concerned about German rule – will be tempted to form an alliance against them.
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“The Germans saw the British as allies for the causes of economic liberalism and the cut in EU budgets.”
In a letter for the Center for European Reforms, Grant also pointed out that Brexit had led to a time of self-reflection in Brussels.
Former European Council President Donald Tusk then warned that the EU’s obsession with full integration could backfire.
He said: “Obsessed with the idea of immediate and full integration, we failed to notice that ordinary citizens, European citizens, do not share our enthusiasm for the euro.
“You see governments and parties everywhere jumping up and down asking for ‘more Europe, more Europe’. If you want people to overwhelmingly reject Europe, go ahead. “”
READ MORE: Brexit rejection: aftershock plan to return to EU “within five years”
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He said: “Sometimes crises bring people closer together – there is the old adage that Europe is forged in crises.
“But of course a crisis can go too far and some crises explode – in this case monetary union.
“I think both possibilities exist and it is difficult to say which is more likely.
“There is a possibility that all of this will end as the legitimate claims of the southern states are not possible for the northern states, which could eventually lead to the withdrawal of a southern state.
“The northern states could even go en bloc.”
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