‘May can’t pick and choose on Single Market’ – Barnier

Single Market is no supermarket

MICHEL Barnier appeared to undermine Theresa May’s Brexit strategy as she was preparing to release the UK’s exit proposals last night.

The EU’s chief negotiator warned that the Single Market was not ‘a big supermarket’ from which countries can pick and choose which bits they want to belong to.

And he vowed that the EU’s Common Market would not be allowed to ‘unravel’ or be ‘damaged’, adding that the EU was willing to ‘adapt’ its Brexit offer – but only if the UK shifts on its ‘red lines’.

Mr Barnier said: ‘The Single Market is our main economic public order. We will not damage it, we will not unravel what we achieved with the UK.’

He added: ‘The Single Market is the heart of the European project... it should never be seen only as a big supermarket.’

Meanwhile, Mrs May secured her cabinet’s agreement last Comments: Michel Barnier night for her Brexit plans, overcoming rifts among her ministers to win support for ‘a business-friendly’ proposal aimed at spurring the stalled talks.

In response, an Irish Government source said: ‘It’s welcome that the British government is finalising specific proposals for the future EUUK relationship.’

The Taoiseach, key ministers and their closest advisers are expected to spend the weekend closely assessing the British proposals.

They came about after an hours-long meeting at the prime minister’s Chequers country residence, where Mrs May seemed to have persuaded the most vocal Brexit ministers to back her plan to press for ‘a free trade area for goods’ with the EU.

The agreed proposal – which also says Britain’s large services sector will not have the current levels of access to EU markets – will not come soon enough for Brussels, which has been pressing Mrs May to come up with a detailed vision for future ties.

At the core of the proposal is the establishment of a ‘free trade area for goods’ to ‘avoid friction at the border, protect jobs and livelihoods, and ensure both sides meet their commitments to Northern Ireland and Ireland’.

The proposal calls for the UK and EU agreeing a ‘common rulebook for all goods including agri-foods’, with British ministers committing in a treaty to ongoing harmonisation with Brussels’ rules necessary to provide for frictionless trade at ports and the Irish border.

‘Today, in detailed discussions, the cabinet has agreed our collective position for the future of our negotiations with the EU,’ Mrs May said in a statement.

‘We must all move at pace to negotiate our proposal with the EU to deliver the prosperous and secure future our people deserve.’

Mrs May has rejected the EU’s backstop proposal, which would keep Northern Ireland inside the EU’s regulatory orbit, on the grounds it would effectively create a border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mr Barnier said: ‘We are not asking for any new borders between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and all or parts of the backstop can be replaced by an agreement on the future EU-UK relationship which addresses the issues relevant to a land border.’

Mrs May spent all day yesterday outlining the plan to her cabinet. Ministers reportedly had their phones taken off them so they would be unable to leak details of the talks.

senan.moloney@dailymail.ie