Jan. 31, 2020, was “a sad day” for French president Emmanuel Macron, whose firm attachment to the EU took what he described as “a shock” when Britain turned its back on the bloc after 47 years of membership. This divorce weakens Europe and is a failure of the EU, according to Michel Barnier, the former French minister heading the Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom. Macron described Brexit as “a historic alarm signal for Europe that should make us think.” This signal had been given by many throughout Europe, and France in particular, for many years, but nobody corrected the fake image put forward by populists and the extreme right, which pushed their supporters to shy away from the EU. Many people in Britain and around Europe felt that they were not protected by the EU, that globalization scared them, and that their sovereignty was being taken away by a bureaucratic decision-making process in Brussels that was constantly making laws for their countries. Barnier explained that Brexit has unraveled all existing relations between Britain and the EU and now the crucial thing is to build a new relationship. The British have left 650 international agreements and Barnier said that there is a need to renegotiate everything, from a new trade agreement to fishing rights, security, defense and foreign policy. It will take more than 10 months, according to Barnier, but that is the time limit of the transition period, during which the UK will stay in the single European single market and customs union. Macron said in a letter to the British people he published on Facebook that “never has France or the French people — or, I think it is fair to say, any European people — been driven by a desire for revenge or punishment.” The EU accounted for 53 percent of Britain’s imports and 45 percent of its exports in 2018. Will a new trade agreement with the US — as promised by President Donald Trump — compensate for that? Britain’s exports to the US were at 19 percent in 2018. Europe should respond by underlining its successes, while also analyzing its failures and correcting them Randa Takieddine The impact of Brexit on the UK economy will be the real test for those in Britain and the many in Europe who accuse the EU’s rules, regulations and bureaucracy of violating their independence and sovereignty. They are misinformed because the EU is the means by which most Europeans cooperate permanently and efficiently. There will always be those who dislike the EU and think it is undemocratic and bureaucratic, but Europe should respond by underlining its successes, while also analyzing its failures and correcting them to counteract the increasing number of people who promote the idea of leaving the EU. The success of the single currency — the euro, which the UK never joined — is one example. Security cooperation, peace, and free trade within the union are also examples of its great achievements. However, there is a lot to say about the EU’s diplomacy, foreign policy and defense that is not at the level it should be — although France is striving to build a European defense force. France and Germany are the EU’s two leading remaining powers but, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel weakened at home and Britain having left, France is isolated on the foreign policy front. That reduces the weight of the EU’s 27 remaining countries in world conflicts. A stronger, more unified EU would be much more efficient in a world where the US president’s priority is “America First.” It would also be more useful in regional conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. There is clearly a need for more unity and reform of the EU. It should not widen its membership to more than what it is now: 27 countries of varying economic situations. The bloc has already helped save Greece from a dramatic economic collapse. The world needs the EU, but the EU needs to work on its shortcomings. It also needs to address its ordinary citizens, to inform them better — in a simple way, not a technical one — about what it offers to the people of this union. Macron said in his goodbye message to the UK that the “Brexit campaign was based on lies, exaggerations and checks that were promised but will never come.” Indeed, a lot of people in Europe are misinformed about the benefits of the union, which makes the supporters of French extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen believe that their country’s sovereignty is at stake because of Brussels’ regulations. This is fake news that is pushed to misinform ordinary citizens and encourage them to vote for populists like Le Pen. The task of the EU is to reform and inform to protect the union, while the success or failure of Brexit will be an important test for the bloc. • Randa Takieddine is a Paris-based Lebanese journalist who headed Al-Hayat’s bureau in France for 30 years. She has covered France’s relations with the Middle East through the terms of four presidents. Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view