Slovakia threatens to veto Brexit deal

A GROUP of four central European countries have threatened to veto Theresa May’s Brexit deal unless she guarantees their citizens the right to work in Britain.

In a dramatic warning last night, the prime minister of Slovakia said his country – along with Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic – was ready to block any agreement between Britain and the European Union.

Mrs May is preparing to negotiate with the EU’s other 27 member states on the terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc. She is under pressure from banks and other businesses to protect Britain’s access to the EU’s single market but is also facing demands from her own MPs and other politicians to strip European migrants of the automatic right to move to Britain for work.

Speaking after a summit in Bratislava, Robert Fico, the Slovak leader, said that such a crackdown would force him and his three allies to veto any deal.

The four countries are collectively known as the Visegrad group (V4). Mr Fico said they shared a common interest in protecting their citizens’ rights to work in Britain. “V4 countries will be uncompromising,” he said. “Unless we feel a guarantee that these people are equal, we will veto any agreement between the EU and Britain. I think Britain knows this is an issue for us where there’s no room for compromise.”

On Friday, EU officials also warned that Britain would not gain access to the single market unless Mrs May accepted rules allowing the “freedom of movement” of workers. Mr Fico said he was opposed to any “cherry-picking” in negotiations, insisting that the EU’s founding freedoms must remain.

Mrs May has so far stopped short of guaranteeing that EU migrants already living and working in the UK will be allowed to stay and has insisted that gaining control over migration will be essential in any deal she strikes with Brussels. On Friday, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, was reported to be ready to drop his desire to keep Britain in the single market, in exchange for securing migration controls.

‘Unless we feel a guarantee that [our citizens] are equal, we will veto any agreement between the EU and Britain’