For a New Kind of Cooperation After Brexit
The Brexit is accompanied by a loss of substance for the EU, particularly in the high value-added areas of research and finance. Philippe Aghion proposes to compensate for these losses by developing cooperation markets between the continent and the UK in industry, research, transport and defence. He suggests that the constraints linked to Brexit require Europe to develop ambitious cooperation initiatives, particularly in the field of research.
What are the initial consequences of the British leaving?Their leaving certainly means a loss of expertise in areas in which they were very good, such as research. The best European universities are in the UK and Switzerland, as the Shanghai rankings show. Moreover, the British evaluators were excellent and they were quite helpful in setting up the European Research Council (ERC) and making it work; so without them the quality will suffer. They are also very good central bankers; it is always important to have competent people to meet with in international meetings. The United Kingdom remains a great power and, although they left the European Union, we will have to try to collaborate with them in areas where they excel, such as fundamental research or in industrial fields that are important to us, such as energy, health, aeronautics, and…