Even after five years, it is still hard to gauge the political and economic impact of Brexit on the UK. But we do know the answer to a more interesting question, one that hardly ever gets asked: how did Brexit affect the EU?
Brexit changed the way the EU has been functioning politically. What used to be a fine balance between northern liberal states and the dirigiste states of the south and west shifted when the UK left. Contrary to predictions at the time, the EU’s single market has become less liberal. The momentum for a capital markets union has been lost. Its absence is what keeps the EU underinvested in 21st-century technologies.
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