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Mr Barnier argued there would be a risk to Europe’s financial stability if the continent’s main financial centre was outside the EU’s regulatory orbit. While co-operation would be possible at international level, Mr Barnier said this could never amount to the type of access enjoyed by Britain under the single market. “Let’s not have a short memory!” he said, referring to the financial crisis. “We will not compromise on financial stability — we will never compromise on financial stability — in the EU and in the eurozone.” His assessment came in a speech to the Centre for European Reform that highlighted the hurdles remaining if Britain is to achieve “sufficient progress” in divorce negotiations by a crucial December summit.

“The UK has chosen to leave the EU. Does it want to stay close to the European model or does it want to gradually move away from it?” he said at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels.Mr Barnier reminded the British government that any future trade agreement with the EU must be ratified in at least 38 national and regional parliaments, as well as by MEPs, before it can come into force.

British banks will lose "passporting rights" to do business in the European Union after Brexit, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator has said. Speaking in Brussels on Monday Michel Barnier said that "Brexit means Brexit, everywhere" and that there could be no opt-ins to parts of the single market for certain industries. “On financial services, UK voices suggest that Brexit does not mean Brexit. Brexit means Brexit, everywhere,” Mr Barnier said in a major speech to the Centre for European Reform think-tank.

Michel Barnier says it is odd to be talking about Brexit at a Centre or European Reform conference about the future of the EU. But he goes on
"Brexit could prove to be a turning point in the European project.
The year 2016 could be seen as a moment of reckoning. It could be the point where the EU realises “no one will do for us what we don’t do for ourselves.”
Barnier shows a slide which he says David Cameron used to use to justify his faith in the single market.

Mr Barnier spoke at a conference on ‘The Future of the EU’, hosted by the Centre for European Reform (CER) in Brussels. The European Union’s chief negotiator delivered the keynote speech at the day-long event, which marks the launch of CER’s new Brussels office. Also on the agenda is the future of the euro, Brexit, migration and security. 

Michel Barnier, speaking to the Centre for European Reform in Brussels, has warned that ratification by EU Parliaments will be tricky if the UK goes down the route preferred by the more ardent Brexiteers and chooses to diverge from EU rules. Michel Barnier’s speech was peppered with warnings for UK politicians who still think that a Brexit deal could see many of the advantages of current smooth access to the Single Market continuing post Brexit even if the UK tries to diverge from EU rules.

France had wanted a smaller group; that Germany’s eastern neighbours are included is an important signal , says Sophia Besch, a security expert at the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think-tank. But for PESCO to succeed, much more is needed, including financial commitments which German voters may still be unwilling to accept.

 Unia próbowała tego wiele razy. Po raz pierwszy inicjatywa może zakończyć się sukcesem – mówiła Sophia Besch, ekspertka think tanku Centre for European Reform w Londynie.