No deal on Brexit ‘would devastate the EU’
HUNGARY last night broke ranks to warn that the EU faces economic devastation if it fails to achieve a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain.
Its foreign minister Peter Szijjarto demanded Brussels stop trying to punish the British people for voting to leave.
In a stinging rebuke days before the European Council summit, Mr Szijjarto said the EU had put its citizens’ security at risk by threatening to kick Britain out of projects such as the European Arrest Warrant and DNA database for criminals.
He told the Daily Mail EU negotiators should understand the economic damage they will cause if they fail to sign a comprehensive UK trade deal. Mr Szijjarto said: ‘If the EU is not able to come to an agreement with the UK it
‘They didn’t think British would dare to leave’
will end up with a further decrease in its competitiveness, which has already suffered in recent years. That is obvious if you look at the US, China, India and other countries.
‘If we are not able to come to a deal with a country that represents 14 per cent of our economy, that would lead to a situation that would be very devastating for the EU.’
Pushed on why EU negotiators were taking such a hardline position if it was damaging for Europe, Mr Szijjarto said: ‘There are still many people in Brussels – without mentioning names – who look at the Brexit decision as a personal insult against them, because they simply did not believe that the British would dare make the decision to leave the EU.
‘I think if the European Commission had behaved before the referendum in a more understanding way, willing to understand more how the British mindset operates, we could have reached another type of outcome.’
Meanwhile, Theresa May’s talks with EC president Donald Tusk ahead of the summit of EU leaders this week got off to an awkward start last night, with a tense-looking kiss outside Number 10. Mr Tusk said he was ‘very, very moved’ by the pro-EU march in London at the weekend, when tens of thousands of protesters called for a second referendum.