In the beginning, both the EU and the UK will suffer huge losses due to Brexit. It is not a lose-win situation, the UK’s losses are not the EU’s wins. Blatantly, it is still not a win-win situation either.
However, it could be. As Miriam González Durántez rightly put it /FT, 13 January 2020/ both can win by responding to the shock of Brexit with new waves of regulatory reforms targeting stronger competitiveness and higher growth.
It is true that only Denmark scores better than the UK on the ease of doing business. It is also telling, that in the EU, there are still 83 types of trade obstacles to be abolished and 40 legislative measures to take in order to complete the single market.
Instead of having a future catalogue of disasters coming from retaliations from both sides, we can capitalise on the strong catalyst coming from this divorce. Both, the EU and the UK need to be reformed to become strategic partners again.
Governor Matolcsy, MNB, the Central Bank of Hungary
