The fear of Brexit
Will the United Kingdom have its companies flee towards other European countries? As businesses start to worry that there might be a hard Brexit without a proper agreement, this seems more and more likely.
The UK will leave the EU in March 2019. So far, this is the only thing we know for sure in this complicated project. Indeed, the negotiating parties have made little progress over the past 2 years, and companies fear that they might not be able to easily do business with the rest of Europe anymore. In fact, just a little while ago, the EU asked the British prime minister, Theresa May, for more details on its position, because so far, everything has been blurry.
Thankfully, in March, they were able to agree on a period of transition post-Brexit. As such, people and companies will have until the end of the year 2020 to adapt, once the UK will have left the EU. However, this far less than what Theresa May hoped: she wanted the transition to last at least until 2021. And furthermore, even then, some were worried that 2 years might not be enough.
As such, many British companies are preparing in case no agreement is ever found, and customs reappear when dealing with the EU. In particular, banks have been steadily looking for other cities to move their activities to; Frankfort, Dublin or Paris seems to be their first choice.
