Juncker: Britain will come back into the fold
Brexit is not the end, says EU chief as top negotiator suggests Britons could keep European citizenship
JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER has said he hopes Britain will one day re-join the EU, striking a conciliatory note before Theresa May triggers Article 50.
The President of the European Commission said that he believes that Brexit could lead not to the death of the European Union, as some have predicted, but to its “rebirth”.
Mr Juncker’s comments came after Guy Verhofstadt, the chief negotiator of the European Parliament, called for British citizens to be allowed to retain the benefits of EU membership after Brexit.
Mr Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, said that individuals should be allowed to keep rights such as the freedom to travel and vote in European elections.
His remarks came at the end of a turbulent two-day EU summit that exposed deep divisions among the remaining 27 EU member states, who have squabbled openly about the future direction of the bloc after Britain’s departure.
Mr Juncker said: “The day will come when the British will re-enter the boat, I hope. Brexit is not the end of the European Union, nor the end of all our developments, nor the end of our continental ambitions.
“The Brexit issue is encouraging the others to continue, unfortunately without the British.”
Mr Juncker’s comments masked fierce disagreements between core EU states, led by France and Germany, which want to revive a “two-speed” Europe, and smaller members such as Poland, Romania and Hungary, which fear that they could be left marginalised and disadvantaged.
The long-simmering tensions were forced into the open when Poland refused to sign off the summit’s formal conclusions after the other member states defied its attempts to block the re-election of Donald Tusk – Poland’s former prime minister – to the presidency of the European Council.
While Germany and Mr Juncker are pushing for new EU projects, such as a beefed up common defence policy, Poland is demanding “less Europe”, including radical reform of EU institutions such as the European Commission. Warsaw believes the body is too bloated and too bossy, and warned after the summit that Europe will “not survive” without significant changes.
The leaders of the 27 EU states that will remain after Brexit will try to narrow their many differences before a meeting in Rome on March 25 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the EU’s founding treaty.
Mr Verhofstadt said he hoped to convince European leaders to allow Britons to keep certain rights if they were to apply for them on an individual basis. “That Britain goes out of the EU is a tragedy, a disaster, a catastrophe – you name it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, echoing many voices in Europe who still harbour hopes that Britain will pull back from the brink when the consequences of Brexit become clearer.
“All British citizens today have also EU citizenship. That means a number of things: the possibility to participate in the European elections, the freedom of travel without problem inside the union,” Mr Verhofstadt continued.
“We need to have an arrangement in which this arrangement can continue for those citizens who on an individual basis are requesting it.”
Legal experts said that EU citizen- ship could only be extended to non-EU citizens if the EU treaties were to be revised – a very unlikely prospect in the near term – but that the EU and its member states could unilaterally extend some equivalent rights to UK citizens if they wanted to.
Mr Verhofstadt first proposed the “associate” scheme in January but said it was now an emotional response to the thousands of letters he had since received from British citizens who did not vote for Brexit and did not wish to lose their relationship to Europe.
Asked whether the UK would welcome the opportunity for its nationals to retain some of the benefits of EU citizenship after Brexit, No 10 said it was “not something that we have ever proposed or said that we are looking at”.
“We will go into negotiations and discuss the ideas put forward by the EU and its various institutions,” said a Downing Street spokesman.
Poland condemned Britain’s refusal to offer its support in its efforts to prevent the re-election of Mr Tusk, casting a shadow over UK efforts to enlist the country during Brexit. “Where was the UK in Brussels?” said Witold Waszczykowski, the Polish foreign minister.
‘Brexit is not the end of the European Union, nor the end of ... our continental ambitions’