Author: Zaal Margvelashvili, Research Fellow at the Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training and Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia

November 2019

To date, one of the most important events in the political life of the EU and the UK is the so-called Brexit process, under which the UK and the EU seek to reconcile the modalities and conditions of further relations between the EU and the UK.

Brexit itself emerged as part of the internal political processes within the UK, in the background, when there was deceleration of economic growth both in the UK itself as well as in number of European countries. The UK at this time had significant fiscal deficit and the government of the former conservative Prime Minister David Cameron had to make a number of compulsory reforms in order to reduce budget deficits, including weakening social security systems and privatization of national postal service.

It is noteworthy that in that period the same economic crisis affected Greece, Spain and Portugal and Germany, along with the international financial institutions, has played an important role in overcoming these crises; however, one of the major factors causing this crisis was the so-called EU “severe austerity” policy, originally supported by the government of Germany. Furthermore, countries affected by the crisis were declaring that for the purpose of overcoming financial and economic crisis there was the need to increase the effectiveness of the EU through wider use of direct democracy capabilities, simplification of EU regulations and management styles as well as implementation of policy focused on economic growth.