EU: U.K. in fantasy world about relations after Brexit

BRUSSELS — The European Union turned the screws on Britain Wednesday, insisting that Prime Minister Theresa May’s ambition to maintain an intense post-divorce partnership where London can pick and choose the sectors it maintains close economic ties with was nothing but a pipe dream.

Both EU President Donald Tusk and the European Parliament drafted texts making it clear that any hopes Britain could “have its cake and eat it” after Brexit were wildly overambitious. Instead, they painted a picture of drift and economic loss for a country that has been a member of the EU since 1973.

The post-brexit economic relationship “will only be a trade agreement,” similar to those the EU has with an array of other nations, said Tusk, who coordinates policy between the 27 EU nations that Britain is negotiating with.

Though Britain is due to leave the EU in March 2019, there is still uncertainty over how it will do so and what relationship it will have with what is its biggest trading partner.

Tusk said on a free trade agreement with Britain that “we will do our best, as we did with other partners, such as Canada recently.”

The comparison will likely sting, not least because Canada is some 3,100 miles away as opposed to the 50-kilometer stretch that separates Britain from the European mainland.

EU leaders have warned that

May’s insistence on leaving the EU’S tariff-free single market and customs union means the close ties she is seeking are impossible.