On Monday, STEP BeNeLux held a luncheon at the Cercle Munster in Luxembourg-Grund to address the issue of Brexit following Thursday's historic referendum in Britain, on the topic "The Aftermath of the Brexit referendum".

Frank Engel, MEP in the European People's Party and a member of the Luxembourg Christian Social Party (CSV), opened by stating that acknowledging that he does not have any solutions to the issues; he cannot say what will happen because nobody knows. He referred to last Thursday's referendum and stated that this is the first such referendum which has questioned a Member State's role in the European Union.

He stated that the entire media landscape - with the possibly exception of The Guardian - in Britain has been painting the European Union "as crap". He claimed that David Cameron, had he really wanted the UK to remain in the UK, would have held the referendum within the life of the previous governmnet when the coalition party was the pro-Europe Liberal party.

The statistics now show that 28% of the population did not vote. If particularly young people had voted, the result could have been different.

He confirmed that the referendum is legally non-binding. David Cameron has indicated that he will not be Prime Minister in October and there do not seem to be anyone else that is eager to step up to the position and take control of the country.

So what will happen in the days to come? David Cameron has said that he will not trigger Article 50 himself, but will leave it to his successor. The European Parliament will meet tomorrow (TuesdaY) and is expected to call on Britain to start the withdrawl process soon; there will be sanctions (against Britain) if Article 50 is not activated, according to Article 7 of the European Treaty. David Cameron has been summonsed to attend the Council Meeting next week but is unlikely to attend. Lord Hill has resigned as British Commissioner to the EU and the British government does not seem to want to appoint someone else. As a result the European Parliament will push for Britian to withdraw now instead of being in a state of uncertainty.

He asked why is it so difficult for the Conservative Party to appoint a new leader and Prime Minister. Sooner or later Britain will have to make up their mind: whether to remain in the UK or to leave.

One of the things that could be good for the UK would be to become a member of EFTA; this would be a small lie by the Leave lobby and would incur payments to the EU, but could be good for Britain.

He revealed that one thing he has never understood is that Boris Johnston, as well as Nigel Farrage, have been touring the country with buses displaying messages, e.g. €350 million paid by the UK to the EU, which could be paid into other areas, such as the NHS: nobody challenged these figures, which were wrong.

He stated that it all boils down to there not being a conviction in the UK that it belongs to Europe; it never wanted anything to do with the social chapter, it did no adopt the Schengen Treaty, it did not sign up to the Euro, etc. We have to face up to the fact that the UK does not want to be a part of Europe.

Following a short pause to have something to eat, he said that the Czech Republic may be the next in line to question their membership of the EU, and there are other Member States also considering holding a similar referendum.

He acknowledged that the EU is not perfect and needs more regulation and consensus in certain areas, including foreign policy.

On timing, he referred to the issue of a three-year withdrawl negotiation process starting possibly on 1 November, and could even be extended to three years. But this uncertainty is doing nobody any good and called on the UK to left their intentions be known as quickly as possible and to clarify the legal situation. He acknowledged that some firms based in the UK, particularly those active in the financial sector, are already looking at moving to operate Luxembourg and other EU Member States.

He also acknowledged that he would not be shocked if, at the end of the day, Brexit does not happen. He also predicted that the UK will cease to exist the day that Scotland claims its independence. He also said that "David Cameron will go down in history as the undertaker of the United Kingdom".

He also acknowledged that the EU needs reform and suggested a freeze on regulation during which the reform process can be examined.

STEP is the premier global trust and estate planning organisation dedicated to informing and educating estate planning and administration professionals. STEP has 19,500 members in 95 jurisdictions and provides its worldwide members with international learning and a business network focusing on the responsible stewardship of assets today and across the generations. See www.step.org and www.stepbenelux.org.

Photo by Geoff Thompson: Frank Engel (2nd from left) MEP with members of the board of STEP BeNeLux