Politics and Policy 2016

As ever, 2016 will be a year in which the landscape for businesses and investors in the EU will be shaped by the choices of politicians and policymakers.

It will be a year in which identity politics, euroscepticism and external instability will strain the EU’s basic structure, dictate the future of the single currency – and could see Britain choose to leave the Union altogether.

It will be a year of important shifts in the regulation of energy, financial services and technology businesses. Conflicting political aims around the regulation of competition, carbon and corporate responsibility will all need careful navigation. The Europeanisation of Europe’s banks, energy businesses and capital markets will all come up against political resistance, and the scope for European consolidation in sectors like telecoms will be fiercely contested.

It will be a year in which the way we regulate technology businesses will evolve again. From political judgements of the risks and opportunities of the ‘gig economy’ to the regulation and protection of data, the scope for innovation is changing and policymakers are often balancing competing imperatives around privacy and security and disruption and continuity.

To start the year, the GC London team have previewed some of these European choices in this document, and why they will matter.