Matt Bevington is a public policy researcher at the think tank UK in a Changing Europe. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

(CNN) Brexit is a bit like a screaming child. Those of us in the UK want everyone else to care about it as much as we do. But for most European Union member states, it's an annoyance to be gotten rid of -- respectfully, but as quickly as possible.

There's no doubt foreign audiences are interested in the process. It is unprecedented, after all. Diplomats from across Europe -- and elsewhere -- are trying to figure out what Brexit will mean, but mostly in terms of what kind of UK will come out of Brexit rather than what kind of EU.

This much is also clear in the media coverage of Brexit in the EU. Research by the Reuters Institute showed that nearly 60% of Brexit coverage has presented it as a UK-only problem rather than something with big implications for other member states or the EU more widely. And this figure rises to nearly 70% when Irish media is excluded.

This is partly because the economic risks from Brexit for most EU member states are seen as negligible and certainly manageable. Academic work suggests about 12% of the UK economy is at risk from Brexit, whereas the EU average is more like 2.5%.

Hence the calculation on the EU side that the worst-case outcome from the talks is not "no deal," but any agreement that could undermine the EU single market. The top priority is preserving the benefits of membership -- a delicate balance of rights and obligations that the EU is loath to disrupt for the UK's sake.

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