Brexit on the Brussels Backburner as EU Juggles Its Many Fires

Ian Wishart, Bloomberg, 20.10.2016

Quotes

Link to full article


When U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May shows up to her first European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday, she’ll have to take a number and get in line before addressing any national grievances. [...]

‘Illiberal Europe’

By this time next year the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands could all have been bruised or even toppled in elections or, in Italy’s Matteo Renzi’s case, from the fallout of a referendum.

And, as this summit shows, they will go into those votes with Europe’s greatest problems still gnawing away at them, said Janis Emmanouilidis, Director of Studies at the European Policy Center in Brussels.

“None of the old crises has been resolved – neither the debt crisis, nor the geopolitical crisis in our relations with Russia, nor the migration-refugee crisis, and now on top of all that we have Brexit which will absorb a lot of political energy,” Emmanouilidis said. “The main risk for the EU isn’t exploding -- muddling through is the likeliest scenario – but the danger of a more regressive and illiberal Europe.”

Read full article here



Latest media contributions

EPC Update / Post-summit Briefing: The last EU Summit of 2025: a real moment of truth?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 19.12.2025

The next MFF: an adequate answer to EUrope’s challenges?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 24.11.2025

The future of enlargement and EU reform – the candidates' perspective
EU Democracy Reform Conversation, YouTube, 27.10.2025

October Summit: Can the European Council move from divisions to delivery?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 24.10.2025

EPC Update / Post-summit Briefing: Copenhagen and beyond: accelerating progress on defence and Ukraine?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 02.10.2025

State of the Union 2025: A crisis of confidence?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 10.09.2025

EPC Update / Post-summit Briefing: A tale of two summits: Will the EU27 agree on a major leap forward?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 27.06.2025

Nawrocki prezydentem. „Osłabienie Donalda Tuska w Brukseli”
Quotes, Deutsche Welle (Polish edition), 02.06.2025

A Test of Times – Permachange through enlargement and EU reform
EPC Policy Briefing, YouTube, 28.05.2025

EPC Update: A new leadership momentum in EUrope?
Online Briefing, YouTube, 23.05.2025


Media