By the time you read this, there's a good chance that Prime Minister Theresa (or, if you're part of the Trump administration, Teresa) May will have triggered Article 50 and the UK will begin the process of leaving the EU for a destination as yet unknown. What this means for UK organisations remains a mystery. The former business secretary, Sajid Javid, made an appearance on Question Time in November last year in which he offered a Westminster version of the line used by Baldrick from Blackadder – "We have a cunning plan" – offering little clarity for sectors such as science and technology, which depend on close international co-operation and the movement of talent across borders.
Read more: Don't think borders, think big: why Article 50 can't, and won't, stop the thriving Euro tech scene
So we decided to ask some of the people in our network, entrepreneurs who have built significant businesses on both sides of the English Channel – from Londoner Martha Lane Fox to BlaBlaCar's Parisian founder Nicolas Brusson – what they think Brexit would mean for the sector. Like the WIRED team, entrepreneurs are natural optimists, so their default setting is one of careful positivity. If you're well informed, it's possible to find opportunity and a sense of buoyancy, no matter how choppy the waters. Their assessment appears in the features section.
The EU is also at the centre of our cover story this month. In the coming months, its competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, could rule in an antitrust lawsuit against Google that has been rumbling on for seven years. WIRED associate editor Rowland Manthorpe travelled to Brussels to discuss with Vestager – who was the highest-ranking European in WIRED's annual list of global influencers last year – how today's huge technology companies should do business in Europe. Despite Brexit, British organisations will still have to comply with data-privacy laws if they want to do business with companies based in the EU, meaning that Vestager's decision will have a significant impact on the shaping of the internet across the world in the coming years. You can read our report in the features section.
Another area that is currently evaluating the effects of Brexit – positive or otherwise – is the financial services sector. We'll be examining how fintech will adapt to the challenges of leaving the EU with many of the world's leading entrepreneurs in this field – from payments to insurance, banking to regulation – at WIRED Money on May 18. The WIRED team will be there with a spring in our collective step – please do join us.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
