The Progress Of Brexit

Recent reports suggest that Brexit will open up a vast €10.2billion (£8.99bn) hole in the European Union’s coffers when Britain permanently quits the bloc in 2021 – leaving bigger bills for other European Union nations.

Richard L. Gosling, a prominent UK-based businessman, spoke to BE’s Shahana Banerjee on how far the process of Brexit has been realised and sheds light on the challenges that lie ahead.

Q. How far has the process of Brexit been realised?

A. A major step was made in the last two weeks on the mechanism to calculate the amount of money the UK will pay to exit and it was estimated to be around $35 billion. Another bone of contention was the border issue between Ireland and Northern Ireland (NI). People were concerned about re-imposing a “hard” border but this fear has now been reduced and it was agreed with the EU that NI and Ireland would maintain commonality to avoid check points. The overall progress has been slow, and a lot of the ‘promises’ made by UK politicians during the campaigning before the Brexit vote have fallen through. A few weeks back, a vote in our House of Commons defeated a requirement to not have a vote on the final deal. This means that politicians will have a final say to accept whatever the final deal looks like and this could be difficult depending on what comes of negotiations over the coming years.

Q. How does the EU plan to treat the UK after the latter is dropped from all its institutions and agencies?