Press

Michel Barnier told a conference in Brussels that London needs to provide clear proposals soon to find a way for the UK to leave the EU in 2019 but still have a transparent, open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. "Those who wanted Brexit must offer solutions," Barnier told a Centre for European Reform conference in Brussels.

In a speech to the Centre for European Reform which will enrage Eurosceptics, Mr Barnier insisted that any attempt to create new rules after Brexit even on domestic issues such as farming and healthcare will meet fierce resistance from the EU.

The European Union’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has ruled out the prospect of UK financial firms benefiting from a special post-Brexit deal that will give them continued access to Europe’s single market.“Those who claim that the UK should cherry-pick part of the single market must stop this contradiction,” Mr Barnier said at the Centre for European reform conference in Brussels on Monday.“The single market is a package of four indivisible freedoms, common rules, institutions and enforcement structure. The UK knows these rules very well, like the back of its hand. It has contributed to defining them.”

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.