Besides the current challenges – besides Brexit, I’m thinking of topics such as the influx of refugees or the still unresolved sovereign debt crisis in the euro area – it has never been a better time, then, to start the conversation on the future direction of the European Union and to counter the Brexit shock with substantive and necessary reforms.
A wide variety of future scenarios for the EU will be debated, ranging from a return to the nation state to a political union. Between these two extremities, one idea is to establish an asymmetrical union – with a political union, a core consisting of Germany and France as trailblazers.