The British government of Theresa May was relieved of its main proponents for a hard line on Brexit at the beginning of the week - Boris Johnson and David Davis. On Thursday 12 July, as expected, it published its famous White Paper on the future relationship between the country and the EU.
This involves a “practical” 104 page document based on the proposal for a free-trade area with the EU for goods and a raft of common rules but with different rules for services. This free trade area for goods will be based on similar rules, which the British government hopes will resolve the Irish conundrum.
On the question of financial services, the way forward retained involves enhanced equivalences, despite the fact that London originally thought that it would be able to maintain the same advantages as those provided by a European passport and which would have assured the country of greater access to the European market.
The British prime minister also confirmed in its White Paper the end to the free movement of persons in the United Kingdom, even though the latter does envisage mobility and exchange programmes between British and European citizens.
The British also expressed their wish to pursue participation in European Union agencies providing authorisations for merchandise, such as those for chemical products, aviation security and medicines. They will accept their rules and contribute to the budget, explains the document, whilst recognising that the United Kingdom is no longer a member state.
The new Minister for Brexit, Dominic Raab, had in fact defended on the BBC “a tailor-made relationship with the EU” and a “credible, audacious and ambitious” but also “pragmatic” proposal.
The EU's chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, reacted soberly on Twitter, welcoming the publication of this White Paper and stating that he was eagerly awaiting the negotiations planned next week in Brussels.
Parliament's steering group on Brexit also welcomed this publication and the fact that the model proposed by the British government takes the form of an “association agreement”, with the British document mentioning the possibility that the future relationship between London and the EU would take this shape, which Parliament has been requesting for a long time.
The group, steered by the coordinator for Brexit, Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), however, issued a warning to the May government regarding the fact that it would not accept the withdrawal agreement prior to this future relationship, without a viable solution on Ireland. He also pointed out that he was still awaiting the final guarantees from the British government on ways for registering European citizens living in the United Kingdom before Brexit and during the transition. A letter in this connection was sent to the British Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, on 3 July. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)