Globalisation and Transformation

Who are the G20 member countries? What issues do they have? Who leads? Our factsheet gives a first overview.

After the UK vote for leaving the European Union, India, with historically close ties to Britain has to reassess its relations with both sides. A weakening of either the EU or the UK is against India's interests, which could lead to a revivification of the Commonwealth and to new multilateral free trade areas.

On 1 July 2016 Slovakia assumed the Presidency of the EU Council. The government had been planning to implement the agreement reached between the UK and the EU in February 2016. But now they have to deal with the fact that Great Britain is leaving the European Union.

For a long time, the construction of the EU has been incomprehensible and aggravating for Moscow. The EU without Great Britain could be much more pleasant for Russia.

The government accepted the result with disappointment, while many in opposition saw it as an inspiration. Yet the post-Brexit debate might just as well be an opportunity to anchor the Czech Republic more deeply in the European Union.

The UK’s divorce from the EU has diminished the hope of both the British and the Chinese in placing the UK as a spring board to the whole European market. Beijing is losing its newly acquired “best partner in the West”.

With the UK gone, Poland, under the Law and Justice (PiS) government, will lose its favourite ally within the EU.

The three-word motto cited by Hollande in his statement could serve as a summary of what is needed after the Brexit: “freedom, solidarity, and peace”.

The referendum on UK's membership in the EU marks a unprecedented turning point in the history of the EU. Its effects cannot entirely be foreseen but it shows the current problem areas of the European integration project.

Great Britain will leave the EU. What does that mean for European Union going forward? What can be done to strengthen political unity within the Union? A commentary by Ralf Fücks.