Brexit – what next?

Chief of the German Chancellery Peter Altmaier said that Great Britain will officially submit a motion to leave the European Union as soon as “within the upcoming weeks or months”. Meanwhile, the President of the EP Martin Schulz deemed the Tuesday EU summit the most suitable moment for filing such motion.

 

During an interview for a Sunday edition of „Bild”, the President of the European Parliament warned against pointless inertia which – as he stressed – will amplify the universal uncertainty that is already present. And questions abound. Schulz directly called the British government to meet its earlier declarations.

 

Yet, Peter Altmaier, the Chief of the Chancellery in Berlin said that “there is no indication” that London would have the intention to submit a motion to leave the Union during the next summit.

 

„I rather think that the motion will be submitted in the upcoming weeks or months, possibly by the new (British) government” – said Altmaier in Deutschlandfunk radio. In his opinion, making the decision on this issue is solely at the London’s discretion.

 

„The question of whether and when a member state wishing to leave the European Union submits an applicable motion is within the competence of this country only. In my personal view, we should respect this” – he said.

 

Altmaier also stressed that he expects that after the announcement of David Cameron’s resignation in London, one may expect a new government will be formed, and it will be within its competence to file a motion on the matter.

 

On Friday, soon after the official vote results were announced, Cameron said the he will step down from his office by October, and that Brexit negotiations should be launched under a new Prime Minister.

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Great Britain should not endlessly prolong the process of leaving the EU, but assured she will not contest a short delay.

 

The Brexit referendum result made colour red take over global markets. Investors, as usual in moments of uncertainty, turned their attention to gold. That is what happened in the financial crisis of 2008 and this is what happened now, as when the Brits spoke in favour of leaving the European Union chaos broke on the markets.

 

Such tendencies were already visible during the announcement of opinion poll results before the Thursday referendum. When the Brexit supporters dominated, the prices of gold went high up. When the polls showed domination of the Remain camp, i.e. the supporters of Britain staying in the European Union, the gold indexes fell considerably.

 

After the last poll of YouGov agency was published on Trusday, indicating a 52% vote to the supporters of Britain remaining in the European Union, the price of gold decreased to the level of a little below 1250 dollars per ounce. Meanwhile, on early morning European time, following an influx of new data and Asian markets trading, within a few hours the price of the precious metal jumped by almost 100 dollars.

 

In the morning, the price of an ounce of gold was even 1358.20 dollars. That is an increase by over 8.2 percent, the biggest since March 2014. During the day the growths toned down a bit, but still remained on a high level.

 

After the Thursday victory of the Brexit supporters in the referendum, the best way to end the crisis will be economic recovery – said the chief of the European Parliament Martin Schulz in an interview for an Austrian daily “Kurier”.

 

According to Schulz, the European Union needs to be more „democratic and transparent” as well.

 

The President of the European Parliament is not afraid of the domino effect. “In most EU countries a vast majority of citizens is strongly in favour of Europe and knows that Europe is a guarantor of peace, stability and wealth” – he said.