MEPs as a whole on Wednesday 18 January welcomed the announcements made the previous day by UK Prime Minister Theresa May that the United Kingdom would leave the single market and negotiate a free-trade deal with the European Union once the split between the EU and the UK becomes final (see EUROPE 11705).
They nonetheless warned the British leader about the UK government’s wish list for the negotiations and made clear they would not tolerate any previous threats or blackmail.
Leader of the EPP Group Manfred Weber said he was “clearly grateful” that May had provided “some clarification”. But “we still don’t have full clarity”, he indicated. He also wondered what was meant by wanting a free-trade agreement that offered the best possible access to the single European market. “Does she want to leave the single market or not?” he asked.
As for May’s threats to make the United Kingdom a tax haven if the other 27 member states do not accede to her demands, “we have never spoken of punishing but we will not allow ourselves to be threatened”, Weber warned, adding that “threats of that sort will bring nothing but problems”.
Speaking on behalf of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium), who will be the Parliament’s negotiator on Brexit, said that the UK must not be allowed to cherry pick. “It can’t work like that. It has to be a fair agreement” in his view. Other MEPs, such as French Liberal Marielle de Sarnez, also welcomed that May’s speech had brought some clarity.
No declaration of war, Muscat says. Earlier in the day, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that, on reading the British press, he did not think there was any “declaration of war” in May’s comments “as some are saying”. “I think it was a good thing, rather than talking about staying in the single market but looking for exemptions”, he told MEPs as he was presenting the priorities of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU (see other article). “Leaving the single market and the customs union because the priority is border control are positions I can accept”, he commented.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who held a telephone conversation with May on Tuesday afternoon, said that the UK leader had “gone beyond the very vague landscape” of her initial position on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. He repeated that negotiations would only begin once the “farewell letter” had been received from London.
The Commission and its negotiator Michel Barnier “don’t want to rush” into negotiations that are very likely to be “tough”, Juncker said. He called for “a fair agreement for the UK but also for the EU”. The United Kingdom will, however, have to be “treated like a third country and I’m not used to that”, he regretted. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Camille-Cerise Gessant)