00:00It's time now for our Entre-News segment with Solange Mougin.
00:03Hi, Solange.
00:04Hi.
00:05So, believe it or not, the five-year anniversary of Brexit is tomorrow, and so it's time for
00:08us to take stock of how the decision to leave the European Union is perceived on both sides
00:13of the channel.
00:14Solange, five years in, how did the Brits, first of all, feel about Brexit?
00:18Well, the majority of them are not too happy about it.
00:21The data firm YouGov released a poll yesterday that said 55% of Brits say that it was wrong
00:26to leave the European Union, which formally occurred on January 31st, 2020.
00:31Now, you could argue that figure is pretty close to the referendum vote back in 2016
00:36of 52% to leave and 48% to stay.
00:40But what's interesting and what has changed is how people who once believed that it was
00:44the right decision have now changed their minds.
00:46Just 30% of Brits now say that it was right to leave.
00:50And as we see in the lower line here, it has dropped since the transition period ended
00:57in 2021, which is right in the middle there.
01:01Now, this number continues to drop.
01:03Today, that 30% is the lowest it has ever been, and this shows, too, if you analyze
01:07the data on how people voted at the time.
01:11Among the leave voters, now one in six of them think that it was a mistake and 88% of
01:16the remain voters continue to feel that it was wrong to leave.
01:19So the overall feeling among Brits is that it was a bad move.
01:22And many economic statistics and models back this up.
01:26Even if it is too soon to determine the exact cost of Brexit to the UK economy, multiple
01:32reports say that it costs between 1% and 6% of GDP every year.
01:36Now, that seems like a small figure, but when you put monetary value on it, that's over
01:41£100 billion a year.
01:44Likewise, the mayor of London released a report last year that said that the gross added value
01:49to the UK was £140 billion less than if they had stayed.
01:54Right.
01:55So the numbers say the Brits, many Brits, are unhappy with the decision to leave.
01:58I mean, so what are they doing about it?
02:00Is anyone leaving the UK?
02:01Well, for the most part, no.
02:04But the same YouGov poll did show that 64% of them, of Brits, want a stronger relationship
02:09with the EU and 55% of them actually want to join back in.
02:14As for the brain drain, analysts argue that this is happening in some sectors of young
02:19Brits and professionals looking for opportunities abroad.
02:22According to the EU's statistical office, which tracks the first-time residency permits,
02:2842,000 British citizens moved to EU countries in 2023, with most for employment reasons
02:35followed by family reunions.
02:36Now, it was Spain that was the number one destination that these new expats moved to,
02:41followed by France.
02:43And this despite the fact that there are now more difficult hurdles of getting visas, of
02:47being naturalised.
02:48Things have become more difficult, and in particular for Brits with second homes in
02:52Europe who still reside in the UK.
02:55Last year, France's courts ruled that it was unconstitutional to create an exemption
03:00for the over 80,000 Brits who have second homes here.
03:06The idea was for them to let them stay longer than the current rules, which are no more
03:11than 90 days in a 180-day period.
03:14So today, those homeowners need to apply for a visa if they want to stay longer in France.
03:19Other hurdles are also arising.
03:21In Spain, for example, just this month, the President said he was looking to the idea
03:26of potentially barring British nationals who do not live there full-time from buying homes.
03:30The idea is an attempt to tackle Spain's housing crisis.
03:34So some Brits are coming to the EU and trying to invest and live here, but are EU nationals
03:39doing the same with the UK?
03:41Well, not as much.
03:42Since Brexit, there has been a negative net migration, so more Europeans are leaving than
03:47going there.
03:48So that imbalance is something we also see in the tourism industry as well, isn't it?
03:52Yeah, it really is.
03:54Last summer, a report by the CEBR found that while tourism has been recovering across Europe,
04:00since COVID it hasn't been doing as well in the UK.
04:02It found that there was a £2.8 billion shortfall on this.
04:06So why is the EU outperforming the UK in attracting tourists?
04:10Why are Brits still travelling to Europe, but fewer Europeans are taking trips there?
04:15Well, there are a number of reasons for this.
04:17There's the expense.
04:18The UK is ranked 113th out of 119 countries by the World Economic Forum when it comes
04:24to price competitiveness for travel and tourism.
04:27The cost of food and transport in particular are quite high, and they have gotten higher
04:33since Brexit and since COVID.
04:35Then there is bureaucracy.
04:36Many Europeans do not have passports, and since ID cards are no longer – they no longer
04:42work to get into the EU – into the UK rather, and the EU actually too, people choose to
04:48stay in the Schengen zone.
04:50And then – and actually these hurdles are going to get worse this year with the requirement
04:55of added online registration before arriving either in the EU or the UK.
05:04One of the things that I found most interesting is the role of perception here.
05:08Polls show that the effect of Brexit is having on many tourists.
05:14Many tourists do not feel that they're necessarily welcome in the UK since Brexit.
05:19There are constant efforts to reverse these perceptions and hurdles, such as the expansion
05:23of London's Heathrow Airport, which was just announced, that plus a slew of new flights
05:28between Europe and Great Britain that are coming this year.
05:31These are reminders that there are efforts to boost economic growth and air travel.
05:36Despite the worrisome environmental impact of that, these moves are also a reminder of
05:41demand, of how we all want to travel, and how even in this post-Brexit world, there
05:46is a desire to connect with other countries and with other people.
05:49All right, Solange, thank you for that look at life post-Brexit.
05:52I cannot believe it's been five years, tomorrow it officially happened.
05:55Thank you very much for that.
05:56That's our Solange Moujon.
05:58Let's come back to France now.
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