From hard Brexit to Single Market – what do key terms in EU talks mean?
The shape of Brexit is up for debate again as Theresa May tries to rebuild her Government after her disastrous performance in the general election.
There have been calls for a cross-party approach to negotiations with the EU, and pressure from within the Conservative Party for a retreat from the hard Brexit line previously pursued.
This talk has been strengthened by the fact that, with her reduced majority, the Prime Minister is now more dependent on the Scottish Tories and pro-Remain MPs within her ranks, as well as on the DUP, who all favour a softer Brexit.
Against this background, the Government initiated talks with the EU over the country’s withdrawal on Monday. Over the coming months the details of our departure and future relationship with our erstwhile partners will be hammered out in meeting rooms in Brussels.
To help you pick your way through the increasingly tangled Brexit thicket, we explain what the key terms mean. Hard Brexit Neither the Government nor the Opposition officially use the terms “hard” or “soft” Brexit, but practically everybody else does. The trouble is, neither has a precise meaning.
Hard Brexit is usually understood to mean the position taken by the Government before the election, and by some of the more hardline Leave campaigners.
In the Government’s case, it means insisting on the UK regaining control of immigration and withdrawing from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), even at the cost of losing access to the Single Market and membership of the Customs Union (more on these below).
The position taken by Theresa May earlier this year that “no deal is better than a bad deal” is characteristic of the hard Brexit position. It implies that she would rather leave the EU without an agreement on trade rather than compromise on the key issues of immigration and jurisdiction.
Many people think this could lead to a severe economic shock as businesses are faced overnight with having to trade with the EU under WTO rules, which means tariffs on both imports and exports.
But some Brexiteers argue that the impact of new tariffs on exports would be mitigated by the fall in the value of the pound since last June’s referendum.
In any case, since the election the Government has been facing pressure from within its own ranks to abandon its hard Brexit position for a softer one. Soft Brexit Like hard Brexit there is no precise definition of this, but it’s usually understood as meaning trying to retain as many of the benefits of EU membership as possible, particularly access to the Single Market.
People who support a soft Brexit argue that it is worth compromising on other issues such as immigration in order to keep access to the Single Market and Customs Union, because the economic cost of leaving them would be too great.
It implies accepting freedom of movement, and possibly the jurisdiction of the ECJ on cross-border trade, as part of the deal.
In the immediate aftermath of the June 8 election the Government began talking of putting the economy first in the talks, which was taken by many to imply moving from a hard to a soft Brexit position. Single Market The Single Market is the cornerstone of what the EU is all about. Under its rules people, goods, capital and services are allowed to move as freely as possible between the 28 member states.
Margaret Thatcher signed Britain up to the Single Market when she put her name to the Single European Act back in 1986. The idea was to boost economic growth by removing the remaining barriers to trade that still existed within the European Economic Community (EEC) that Britain joined in 1973.
The Single Market is Britain’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 45% of UK exports and 50% of imports. Membership of the Single Market allows British companies to trade across the 28 member states without restrictions, and Britons to live and work anywhere in the EU.
Remainers would like the UK to remain part of the Single Market, but this could only happen if we accepted freedom of movement and the all the regulations that come with membership.
So soft Brexiteers prefer to talk about access to the Single Market under a special arrangement such as that enjoyed by Norway or Switzerland. Both can trade freely with the EU, without tariffs, but have to accept freedom of movement and make some level of contribution to the EU budget. Customs Union The Customs Union is the arrangement under which goods can be traded within the EU with-