Withdrawal from the European Union

Britain will lose its influence in the world and become a "second-rate player" after leaving the EU, said Donald Tusk, quoted by Reuters.

Proponents of Brexit point out that the UK is the fifth largest economy in the world and argue that leaving the EU will open up new opportunities in world trade.

Macron's 'Non' triggered a deluge of analyses and op-eds explaining how the French position would undermine the successes of North Macedonia and Albania, that it dealt huge damage to EU credibility in the Western Balkans and cast a shadow over the region's European perspective, supposedly set in stone in Thessaloniki 16 years ago.

Moody's downgraded the UK credit rating from "stable" to "negative" on Friday, Reuters reported.

The reason for the decision is that Brexit has triggered an "erosion in institutional strength" that threatens the UK's financial credibility.

The Agency confirms the UK's assessment of AA2.

This is the latest in a series of articles on the legacy of the fall of the Iron Curtain 30 years ago. See more.

These dynamics were on full display last month in the qualifying rounds for the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, where a match between England and Bulgaria became a contest between two fundamentally different notions of European identity.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held the first election rally of the campaign for early elections in Birmingham, where he stressed the importance of the vote. Johnson called the December 12 election to try to break the Brexit deadlock, paralyzing the country for more than three years and beginning to undermine confidence in the world's fifth largest economy.

Emmanuel Macron, the French President, has warned European countries that they can no longer rely on America to defend NATO allies.
"What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO".
Europe stands on "the edge of a precipice", he says, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power.

Greece's gross domestic product would have been cut in half if the financial crisis had been followed by a Greek exit from the eurozone in 2015, according to the head of the European Stability Mechanism, Klaus Regling.

In addition, one of the issues of "discord" within the Union is the alleged conflict of interest of one of the EU leaders, according to European media.
Instead of leading the EU into a more integrated post-Brexit era, three major institutions that have to cooperate to make the Union function effectively — the Council, Commission and Parliament — are fighting each other.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won preliminary approval from Britain's parliament to hold the first of nearly a century's December elections in order to break the country's Brexit deadlock, Reuters reported.

The European Council announced its approval of a new postponement for the UK's withdrawal from the European Union by 31 January next year. The decision was formalized "through a written procedure" after the prior agreement of the ambassadors of EU countries was expressed yesterday.