‘Soft’ Brexit Agreement Not a Done Deal, Warn EU Leaders
France’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has welcomed the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement but warned
An agreement was “good news for the French economy, good news for all French firms,” Le Maire told French public television on Thursday. “It’s in everyone’s interest that Brexit should go ahead smoothly.”
However, he stressed
If the
Any toughening of the terms of the draft agreement by the EU would be bad news for Theresa May, who faced a wave of resignations on Thursday by Brexit-backing ministers on the grounds the deal conceded too much ground to
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she was “very happy that, after lengthy and not always easy negotiations, a proposal could be reached”.
The Dutch foreign affairs minister, Stef Blok, said
EU ministers meeting on Monday are likely to demand that the price the
Tariff and quota-free access to the EU through a customs union amounted to “the beginnings of a toehold in the single market”, one EU diplomat said. “We have to be absolutely sure that the
The draft agreement already requires the
These would mean the
But diplomats say several countries – including
Some countries with sizeable fishing industries are expected to resist any customs union agreement which does not grant reciprocal rights to EU vessels in return for tariff and quota-free
Demands for tighter guarantees reflect a fundamental lack of trust in Britain’s post-Brexit intentions, which many member states suspect are driven mainly by a desire to establish a Singapore-style low-wage, low-tax, low-regulation economy on Europe’s borders.
They also illustrate how difficult it will be for Theresa May – assuming she and the withdrawal agreement survive – to negotiate a comprehensive future free-trade deal with the bloc, which sees continued membership of the customs union as the basis for those talks.
It has already rejected May’s vision of a future agreement based on her Chequers plan, which would involve the