“BREXIT is so fascinating!” exclaims a French official. Few Europeans wanted Britain to quit the European Union. But now that it is happening, foreign ministries and policy units across the EU are relishing the task ahead. As an intellectual exercise, managing the multifaceted complexities of Britain’s departure from the EU offers the kind of satisfaction rarely found in policy work. As a historic negotiation without precedent—no country has left the EU before, let alone one of Britain’s size and stature—it is a wonderful CV-builder. In Brussels, where the talks will take place, officials are scrambling to involve themselves with what one calls “the sexiest file in town”.
The preparations for Brexit on either side of the English Channel offer a Homeric parable of chaos and order. In Britain Theresa May, the prime minister, exudes swanlike calm, restricting her utterances on Brexit to warm banalities. But below the surface her government is paddling furiously to avoid being submerged by the awesome bureaucratic task bequeathed to it by Britain’s voters. One leaked note from a consultancy portrays a flailing government that needs up to 30,000 more…
The Economist: Europe