As UK prepares to trigger Article 50, former British EU civil servant doubts ability to strike a bargain with German Chancellor
PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY will not be able to rely on German Chancellor Angela Merkel for any special deals to allow the UK to remain in the single market after triggering Article 50, a former EU official has said.
The comments come from Jonathan Faull, who retired early this month from his post as one of the European Union’s (EU) top civil servants.
According to Faulls, the UK prime minister will be forced to choose between being inside or outside the single market when it exits the EU as “piecemeal access isn’t for sale”.
“The Scottish Government has already published its view on how to address the negotiations in a way that will allow Scotland to get the best deal necessary. And to do so in line with the four freedoms, such as freedom of movement.”
Faull, speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight program in an interview late yesterday (Thursday 6 January), said: “I don’t think it is a question of buying your way somehow into the single market.”
“It’s very simple. Because you’re a member of the single market either as a member of the European Union or the European Economic Area, or you’re a foreign country outside it and you conclude agreements with the European Union if you want to and it wants to regarding the way in which your goods, services, capital and people move around.”
Faull also stated that the UK would not be able cut a “sideline deal” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in which it could push aside any objections of the European Commission and its top negotiator Michel Barnier. He pointed to the failure of former Prime Minister David Cameron to gain any unique deal before the referendum last summer as an example of the inflexability of the EU system to unilateral UK demands.
Speaking to CommonSpace, a spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “It is no surprise that any “sideline” deal is not welcomed by members of the EU27. Any deal would have to be in line with the four freedoms.”
“The Scottish Government has already published its view on how to address the negotiations in a way that will allow Scotland to get the best deal necessary. And to do so in line with the four freedoms, such as freedom of movement.”
May has previously stated that she hoped to trigger Article 50, the process to start the UK’s exit from the EU, by March of this year. Faulls, who has spent almost four decades in the European Commission, expressed the opinion that it was “almost unforeseeable” that the UK would gain access to the single market while restricting freedom of movement.
Brexit campaigners have consistently maintained that the value of UK trade to EU nations would smooth the way for a new trade deal on favourable terms.
Picture courtesy of Thomas Damurrich
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