Paris and London: why Brexit wouldn’t turn two lovers apart?  

“Brexit in progress” is not breaking news or a nightmare anymore. Europeans were kindly   welcomed to a new chapter of European history. The process that is going to take a couple of years creates new social and economic ties between two European capitals, Paris and London.

While the United Kingdom is preparing to become the first country to leave the European Union, on the back stage these two cities, whose love-fight story has lasted for centuries, are doing their best to back up the tough divorce process.

Hence British entrepreneurs, startups, banks and financial agencies are not ready to lose the access to the European open market, they consider relocation to Paris as the best way to mitigate Brexit. According to The “Independence”, HSBCbank wants to move 20% of its financial activity to Paris. Paris can lure around 20 000 jobs in the financial sector. Moreover, British startups are also directing their steps toward Paris, in fear to lose European customers.  

How Paris happened to become such a strong center of attraction to its beloved competitor?

Why no other European city is exciting that much British enterpreneurs ? The answer lies beyond the Parisian history in the Union. Paris remains the top hub in continental Europe for interest-rate swaps. Although it also hosts some of Europe’s biggest banks, including Société Générale and BNP Paribas. Moreover, Paris can offer qualified working force, given its high number of well-ranked universities.

Most of Parisian universities offer courses in English, which simplifies the relocation of some British businesses to the French capital. The city itself presents enough density of economic activities and mix used territories to be attractive for new businesses to come. Especially regarding the Grand Paris project that is aimed to bring new dynamism to the metropolitan area.

The development of the transportation will allow to reduce commuting time as well as create additional value for territories around   Paris. The project also claims and changes completely the sense of public transit, with the access to the internet and network in the subway. In the best-case scenario, commuting would not be lost time any longer, therefore will potentially allow saving the time which is extremely important for the financial sector.

Additionally, the idea to turn almost every new station into moveable business center also serves the same aim. Indeed, Paris real estate market is already experiencing some positive effect of Brexit. Prices in Paris are already up by 1.2% especially on luxury real estate.

Why  isn’t  London fear to death

Nevertheless, the hidden obstacles prevent happy end story to come true. To begin with, unclear regulation of British business that has to be settled in the coming years. Moreover, many experts do not believe that tremendous number of banks will move to country that recently had a 75% top income tax rate. Additionally, some of them refer their fears to the past, remembering  the nationalization of banks made by Mitterrand. Even though banks are private  again  for  some business it is still a reason  to better stay in England. Bearing in mind also  state that Anglo-Saxon system of Common Law covering contracts is vastly, hugely, more efficient than the continental system of Roman or Civil Law and that it is  the main feature of London attractivity as a finance center.

Here is the pure reason not to leave the former financial heart of Europe.  Not to say that British do not believe in French capacity to deal with financing issues “French people are less financially minded.” Quite evidently London is not going to fight hard for the status that has defined its urbanity, thus it is not something that can be transferred or taken.

Because being “global city” is about being above the borders

Quoting Boris Johnson, The Guardian writes “So, yes, in many ways, London is a suburb of Paris and Paris is a suburb of London.” Two cites accounted hundreds years  of rivalry, by the way had created closest economic and social ties With Eurostar, London’s St Pancras and the Gare du Nord are just over two hours apart. Living between two cities is a day to day reality to per cent of population

As Saskia Sassen, a urban sociologist, defined London and Paris are « global cities ». That means the city that is more connected to the rest of the world than to the country of their location. In case of London and Paris, the interconnection is much deeper than France and Great Britain and Great Britain and EU ever was. Therefore, the collaboration between them is predefined by default. Rebuilding the wall in the inter-chanel relations will destroy of both intertwined urban entities.