Yahoo Finance 'Best deal is to remain in the EU' - Barnier
Brexit negotiations are proving that countries are better off inside the EU than outside, the bloc’s negotiator has said.
Michel Barnier today expressed confidence that the final 20% of the withdrawal agreement would be completed by the October today despite concerns over a ‘no deal’ Brexit.
But he said even if a good deal is struck, it’s becoming clear that Britain will be worse-off.
MORE: May ‘wobbling’ after ministers ‘run away’: How Europe sees Brexit drama
Speaking on a visit to the US, the French politician said: “I regret profoundly this vote in the UK. We respect it and we implement it.
“But day after day it’s more clear, not only on the UK side, the UK citizens, but also on the European side in each of countries, what it means to be in the EU and what it means to be out of the EU.
“I can tell you it will clear, clear, crystal clear at the end of this negotiation that the best situation and the best relations with the EU will remain to be a member of the EU.”
His comments were as much about sending a message to Rome, Budapest or Warsaw, where Eurosceptic parties are in power, as to London.
Barnier’s remarks to the US Council for Foreign Relations in Washington were full of coded messages.
He stressed time and again that the four freedoms of the single market are indivisible and that he wouldn’t countenance anything that would unravel the single market.
That was meant as a knock back to Theresa May’s plan to maintain a single market in goods without signing up to freedom of movement.
He insisted though that the EU side didn’t have red lines like the UK, but “principles.”
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If May was willing to weaken her red lines, Barnier said a range of models for closer cooperation than the free trade deal currently being planned remain available.
The customs union the EU has with Turkey was one example he cited and he pointed out that was supported by the Labour party and some Conservative MPs.
Despite several invitations, Barnier refused to address the elephant in the room – the resignations of David Davis as Brexit secretary and Boris Johnson as foreign secretary over May’s new ‘third way’.
Speaking afterwards, Barnier said he had a “frank and cordial relationship” with Davis and negotiations would be “difficult” even without his counterpart’s resignation.
Barnier said that he would negotiate with whoever was sent by May to the next round of talks, which are set to be held in Brussels next Monday.
MORE: ‘Single market is not a supermarket,’ says Barnier in blow to May’s Brexit plan
