COPENHAGEN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - For its neighbours and closest friends in Europe, Britain's impending departure from the EU has prompted a flurry of networking in the hope of defending free trade and lean budgets in Brussels.
Britain has been the hub of an informal club known as the Northern Lights, that includes the EU's Nordic members, Irish and Dutch; it offered collective muscle in wrangling against more protectionist and dirigiste traditions in France and Germany or eastern and southern states hungry for EU subsidies.