Did the EU Benefit From Britain Leaving? The Real Winners and Losers of Brexit
Did the EU Benefit From Britain Leaving? The Real Winners and Losers of Brexit Did the EU benefit from Britain leaving? The short answer is complicated. Brexit created some clear advantages for the European Union, including greater political unity, the relocation of certain businesses and institutions, and more freedom for the remaining member states to pursue deeper integration. But the EU also lost one of Europe’s largest economies, an important trading partner, a major military power, and a contributor to the European budget. The most accurate way to understand Brexit is not as a simple victory for Brussels or a simple defeat for London. It created costs on both sides, but those costs were distributed very differently. 1. Brexit Strengthened Political Unity Inside the European Union One of the biggest potential risks of Brexit was that it might trigger a domino effect. When British voters chose to leave the European Union in 2016, Eurosceptic movements across Europe wa...