As the date of Britain’s exit from the European Union approaches, interest in the smallest details of Brexit heightens. Every letter in the official documents or in public opinion surveys is placed under minute scrutiny by both pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit parties.
The other issues that the European Union is currently facing—there are many other issues and some exceed Brexit in terms of seriousness and importance—are what led the officials of the 27 countries to become frustrated with British Prime Minister Theresa May and her thorny documents.
The biggest crisis faced by the European Union lies in its outdated economic approach, for there are many European companies that have significant global presence, such as Volkswagen which is now competing with Ford, and Siemens, which has been outrunning General Electric for the past 25 years. However, the US was able to carry on a race against Europe in technologies that have emerged from the fourth industrial revolution, and which are also related to artificial intelligence. For instance, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are flourishing in the US, while European countries remain sterile in this growing field.
British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the House of Commons as she faces a vote on alternative Brexit options in London, on March 27, 2019. HANDOUT/REUTERS
According to researcher and economist Larry Elliot, when the Euro project began 30 years ago, the unified currency was supposed to lead to efficiency in a unified market, and promote faster economic growth, but this is not the case. Therefore, the true solution to Europe’s growth problems demands that the flaws of the unfied currency’s design are fixed.
Furthermore, studies show that economic growth in the Eurozone has slowed down, along with Germany’s problems with economic growth and Italy’s recession, all of which confirmed past predictions. Moreover, the Statistical Office of the European Union shows that the region’s gross domestic product of 19 European countries rose by 0.2% compared with the same quarter of the previous year, and by 1.2% on a yearly basis, slowing down from an annual growth of 1.6% in the last three quarters of the previous year.
The Eurozone must be a complete project, but it lacks the political structure to provide it with the resistance required to carry on. Moreover, if Europe’s current economic performance continues, instead of “closer integration” there will be “segregation,” because the return to using national currencies or leaving the Euro will be met with challenges, and the current crisis will lead to a recession that is already on the horizon, which is not that far from happening.
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