From Svetlana:
As an economic unit, the EU didn’t worry me too much; but as it slides toward being a ‘more…
Yes it is difficult to predict. Brexit might have a moderating effect. It certainly put a dent in EU arrogance and its own assumptions that everybody was as enthusiastic about it as those mandarins in their echo chambers in Brussels.
I am optimistic that Britain will prove, by the sky not falling down on London, that the dooms-dayers were exactly that. The warnings from Brussels are always the same — the economy of your country will collapse if you do not have access to European markets. But every country in Europe had open access to those markets before the EU even existed. The EEC provided for that.
Ireland’s main trading partner is the UK. It was before the EU existed and it will be I suspect long after Brexit. Switzerland and Norway, two of the most prosperous and stable countries in Europe, never joined the EU in the first place.