Juncker’s mixed signals on Chequers
JeAN- CLAUDe Juncker torpedoed a major aspect of Theresa May’s Chequers plan yesterday.
The european Commission chief took aim at the bid to stay aligned to the single market via a ‘common rulebook’ for goods but not services or free movement.
Speaking in Strasbourg for his annual state of the union speech, he did though offer Mrs May warm words in response to her calls for an unprecedented relationship.
‘After March the United Kingdom will never be an ordinary third country for us,’ he told MePs. ‘The United Kingdom will always be a very close neighbour and partner in political, economic and security terms. In the past months, when we needed unity in the union Britain was at our sides, driven by the samesvalues and principles of all other europeans.
‘This is why I welcome Prime Minister May’s proposal to develop an ambitious new partnership for the future after Brexit.
‘We agree with the statement made in Chequers, that the starting point for such a partnership should be a free trade area between the UK and eU. We owe it to our businesses and citizens to ensure the UK’s withdrawal is orderly and stable.’
However, he sounded gloomy about the Chequers proposal on goods and the Irish border issue, which continues to be the main obstacle to reaching a divorce deal.
The bloc has long criticised Mrs May’s future trading relationship plan, thrashed out at Chequers, for wanting to remain tied only on goods, as it is seen as a threat to the integrity of the bloc’s single market.
Mr Juncker said he respected Britain’s decision to leave and deeply regretted it. But he added: ‘We also ask the British government to understand that someone who leaves the union cannot be in the same privileged position as a member state.
‘If you leave the union you are of course no longer part of our single market, and certainly not only in parts of it.’
He also denied that Brussels negotiators were manipulating the Irish border issue in order to strong-arm the UK into making concessions.
The issue, in which both sides are trying to agree a ‘backstop’ to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in the event a future trade deal is not reached, has stalled progress on the divorce agreement, which remains around 80 per cent complete.
However, Brexiteers leapt on Mr Juncker’s comments, suggesting they were a signal to Mrs May to ditch Chequers and pursue an ambitious ‘free trade area’ with the eU.
Addressing the Commission president, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: ‘We leave political union but we carry on doing business on a tariff-free basis.’