The European Union and Britain said on Friday there were still substantial differences over a Brexit trade deal as the EU chief negotiator prepared to travel to London in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis.
The European Union and Britain both said a post-Brexit deal was still some way off and differences persisted on Monday over putting in place their earlier divorce deal as they began a decisive week of talks in Brussels.
Global equities treaded water and U.S. government bonds edged higher on Friday as investors weighed better-than-expected corporate earnings and increased M&A activity in Europe against political concerns ranging from the U.S. elections to Brexit.
The European Parliament gave final approval to Britain’s divorce from the European Union on Wednesday, paving the way for the country to quit the bloc on Friday after nearly half a century and delivering a major setback for European integration.
Britain was speeding toward Brexit on Friday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a crushing election victory, ending three years of uncertainty since the country decided to leave the bloc.
There are many key battlegrounds during this British general election, however, not many will be more keenly contested than Scotland.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson puts his last-minute Brexit deal to a vote in an extraordinary sitting of the British parliament on Saturday, a day of reckoning that could decide the course of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.
Given the current state of the global economy, Brexit, and economic stagnation within the European Union, it is unclear what sort of impact this crisis has had on Italy’s economy. Certainly, it has aggravated economic factors (e.g., the spread), investor confidence, etc., but Italy’s economic stagnation precedes this crisis and this government.
Boris Johnson is expected to be elected leader of Britain’s governing Conservative Party and the country’s next prime minister on Tuesday, tasked with following through on his “do or die” pledge to deliver Brexit in just over three months time.
The objective propagated by the populists was to change the majority of the European Parliament, and they did not succeed, as they themselves knew well from the outset; the realistically pursued objective, trying to put pressure on the public policies adopted so far by the Brussels summits, was probably successful.
