Von Der Leyen, has assumed the charge as new German president of the European Union Commission. Germany’s 16 social democrat MEPs are doing themselves and the wider democratic left in Europe no favour by seeking to block the arrival of Ursula von der Leyen as the first woman president of the European Commission. The EU has been built through a series of binding treaties and has characteristics of both a supranational entity (in specified areas, sovereignty is shared and EU institutions hold executive authority) and an intergovernmental organization (in other areas, cooperation is based on consensus among the member state governments). Berlin’s role in the post-Brexit Europe seems fundamentally crucial. Over the years, the EU member states have sought to harmonize laws and adopt common policies on an increasing number of issues. Structurally, EU members share a customs union; a single market in which goods, services, people, and capital move freely (known as the “four freedoms”); a common trade policy; a common agricultural policy; and a common currency (the euro). Perhaps the most prominent challenge for the EU is the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) expected exit. In this regard, Germany will face an inescapable metamorphosis resulted in post-BrexitEurope.In the past, any national head of government could veto a proposal for the top EU leadership job. Sir John Major and Tony Blair both vetoed competent possible EU Commission presidents in 1994 and 2004. In the eyes of Downing Street, both candidates at the time were identified with a strong commitment to a more integrated Europe. The EU ended up with weaker, under-performing Commission presidents who left office under a cloud. But no Commission president belongs to any national or political delegation or at least should not be the property of a party or faction or nation once elected. Factually, Germany’s neighbours have nothing to fear from its new-found strength. Berlin does not want to dominate Europe, but to exercise leadership via the EU framework – something that will be essential in a post-Brexit world. After decades of reluctance, Germany is stepping up to take its place as a leader in European foreign policy. This frustrates some European countries, which fear German hegemony and may act against it. But at the same time, member states place great expectations on Germany to lead the way, an ECFR survey of European policymakers found. Obviously, the EU needs to show its resilience, and its ability to protect its member states and its citizens. With the UK gone, the responsibility for this will increasingly fall on Germany’s shoulders And yet, no other country in Europe has more neighbours than Germany has. It shares its border with nine countries, eight of which are European Union (EU) member states. For Germany, European integration, one of the most impressive political success stories, lays the foundations for peace, security, and prosperity. Advancing and strengthening this, particularly in view of complex and in many cases crisis-ridden conditions, remains the main task of German foreign policy. Begun in the early 1950s, the historical project that today is the EU nowadays has over half a billion citizens in 28 member states. German European policy emerged as a driving force in all stages of European unification and actively helped shape the process of European cohesion following the end of the East-West conflict. “As a result of Brexit, Germany’s role in the EU will be even more decisive,” Croatia’s Plenkovi? said on a recent visit to Berlin. “Everyone expects Germany, together with France, to bring new momentum to the leadership, new ideas to rejuvenate the European project and to set a clear marker between centrist parties and populist movements.” In post-Brexit Europe, Germany has an opportunity to provide a counterweight to long-standing British objections to a unified foreign policy. By putting its considerable influence in the service of a cohesive, strategically focused foreign and security policy, Germany would simultaneously achieve two key objectives: a stronger and more capable EU and a more European Germany. Negotiations over the EU’s next long-term budget, from 2021 to 2027, threaten to be the most hard-fought in the bloc’s history. The exit of the UK, a large net contributor, will create a financial hole estimated by the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank at €94bn over these seven years. According to a study, four German federal states – North-Rhine Westphalia, Baden Württemberg, Bavaria and Lower Saxony – will take 70 per cent of any Brexit impact. For some of these regions, Brexit still has pros and cons. Banking hub Frankfurt and the North Rhine Westphalia powerhouses of Dortmund and Cologne all want to lure talent, capital and companies from the UK. North-Rhine Westphalia, the industrial heartland of Europe, exported €13.2 billion in goods, mainly cars and vehicles, to the UK in 2017. 1,500 of the 19,000 foreign companies in the Ruhr region are British and the head of the region hopes more will come. Obviously, the EU needs to show its resilience, and its ability to protect its member states and its citizens. With the UK gone, the responsibility for this will increasingly fall on Germany’s shoulders. If the EU wants to realise its ambitions as a relevant defence and security actor, for example, this will only be possible if Berlin is willing to do significantly more. It would need to increase its defence spending and its willingness to deploy its forces in Europe’s neighbourhood. France can play an important role in this, but won’t be able to do it alone. Much here will also depend on the extent to which the UK remains integrated into European security efforts more broadly. Ensuring continued close and mutually beneficial cooperation between the UK and the EU27 post-Brexit would lower the pressure on Germany. According to the study, the British government could even impose 3.6 percent tariffs on goods from the rest of the EU and exports from Germany to the UK could fall by up to 57 percent. The researchers believe this would hit the car industry in Germany particularly hard: Around 60 percent of the additional costs from the extra tariffs would be incurred by this sector. Germany’s auto industry is one of the country’s biggest exporters, employing around 800,000 people. Assuming WTO rules are in place, the report estimates that Germany would have to pay on average 4.3 percent more for exports to the UK. For its part, the EU could impose an average tariff of 2.8 percent on British products, reports Zeit. If the volume of trade remained the same, EU companies would incur costs of more than €10 billion per year, with German companies having to pay more than three billion euros in custom duties. The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan