On Friday, 12 April, at an event organised by the American think tank the Atlantic Council in Washington, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, discussed the recent developments surrounding Brexit (see EUROPE 12233/1).
“The good news is that EU leaders (...) have managed to avoid the disruptive scenario, which would have been a no deal”, he said. While he believes that none of the options can be ruled out yet - including revocation of Article 50 - he thinks that postponing Brexit has increased the chances of reaching an “orderly solution”.
“There was no majority for deal, no majority for no deal, no majority for no Brexit, no majority for customs union, no majority for Norway model, so apparently more time is needed for the UK to know what they want and where they can find a majority”, he said.
In his speech, Mr Dombrovskis assured the audience that measures had been taken to deal with any eventuality in the event of a no-deal Brexit, mentioning in particular the temporary equivalence established between the European Union's financial prudential rules and British standards for supervising the activities of central clearing houses and the central depositary located in the United Kingdom (see EUROPE 12187/17).
He emphasised that, in the event a deal is agreed, the future relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom in finance would be based on the equivalence system. He added: “Of course that implies that the UK regulatory framework and surveillance framework have to stay close to EU regulatory framework and produce equivalent outcomes”. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)