UK-EU trade strengthened in June this year, official figures have shown, representing a sign of encouragement post-Brexit. Exports to the EU increased by 1.2 percent to £14.3billion in June. That came after a 9.1 percent increase to £14.1billion in May, when exports first exceeded the level of December 2020. Trade with the EU plummeted after Britain left the bloc, with exports falling by almost 40 percent and imports dropping by 28.8 percent. The situation has since improved but exports remain low compared with the last stable period before Britain’s withdrawal took effect.
This comes after political tension between the UK and EU member states over the Northern Ireland protocol and vaccine rollout.
In December 2020, after the Brexit trade agreement was finally reached with just days to spare, European media gave their verdict.
Germany’s left-liberal Der Spiegel magazine said: “The way a European nation stubbornly turned its back on the European idea and common future still hurts after all those crazy Brexit years.”
German centre-right newspaper Die Welt said the EU would no longer be the UK “whipping boy” to blame for its problems.
It added: “The public can no longer be appeased with the ritual lie that the EU is responsible for all of life’s misfortunes.”
France’s centre-left Le Monde accuses Britain of having “completely abandoned the City, the financial lung of the country”, but it argues the deal marks a “sacred victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson”.
Hungary’s left-liberal daily Nepszava said the EU “also wins with Brexit, as it has bid goodbye to a member-state that was constantly curling its lip at closer integration”.
A right-wing outlet that is aligned with Viktor Orban’s right-wing government in Hungary, gave a more sympathetic view to the UK.
It said: “EU leaders have learned nothing from Brexit… that it is dangerous to push centralisation too far and trample on sovereignty.”
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Conservative newspaper Rzeczpospolita, based in Poland, predicted that Brexit would lead to a breakup of the union.
It claimed Scotland would go independent and even suggested a United Ireland could be on the cards.
It said: “[The] political price of the deal may prove to be much higher than the economic price, as the kingdom is tearing along its seams.
“Poland foresees not only further independence moves in Scotland but also the possible unification of Ireland.”
Billy Kelleher, MEP with the Fianna Fail party in Ireland, told Express.co.uk that the view of the UK in Ireland has worsened since Brexit.
He said that the narrative in the UK around both Northern Ireland and the vaccine rollout has “grated” with Irish people.
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The politician added: “Unfortunately I think the UK Government has been a bit like Donald Trump, not very worried about what people think about the way it conducts itself
“I think the triumphalism around the vaccine in the early stages of the rollout – there was this obsession in the UK hoping the EU would fail with the vaccine.
“Consistent mutterings from senior Tory figures about how they hope the EU would fail, and that seems to be the continual narrative.
“And that narrative grates on the Irish people, because the Irish people are very pro-European and want to see Europe succeed – equally we want to see the UK succeed.”
