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25 August 2018

The Observer: No-deal Brexit will break up UK, warns Van Rompuy


Herman Van Rompuy, the former Belgian prime minister who was council president until 2014, told the Observer that he believed the threat of a no-deal Brexit was a new “operation fear” tactic being used by the government.

“The no-deal issue is not just a problem for the UK or Brussels,” he said. “It is also an existential threat to the UK itself. One can imagine that a no deal will have a big impact and cause concern in some of the regions. Speaking of Scotland, it could have consequences for them and others.”

He added: “We could end up with a situation in which the EU27 becomes more united and a United Kingdom less united. This talk about a ‘no deal’ is the kind of nationalist rhetoric that belongs to another era.” [...]

Van Rompuy, the first person to hold the post of European council president, said a no-deal Brexit might lead to another election in Britain. “If there is no House of Commons support for no deal, then you are very close to new elections,” he said. “If you have new elections, then article 50 [the legal process for Britain’s EU exit] will have to be postponed, because it will not be clear that you will have a government – or a government with a programme.”

He suggested Theresa May’s hopes of Britain in effect remaining in a single market for goods but not services might not be accepted by the EU. “It is rather difficult to make a distinction between goods and services. We are living in a new economy where there is a mix of goods and services for the same kinds of products. Saying that we will have a customs union, or even going further with a single market for goods, and completely separate it from a single market in services – this is what [chief EU negotiator Michel] Barnier called unworkable.”

He criticised Liam Fox, the pro-Brexit international trade secretary, for suggesting a no-deal outcome was now more likely than not. “I don’t like this talk of a ‘50/50’ or ‘60/40’ chances,” Van Rompuy said.

“I know there are so-called tactical considerations about all these discussions on the chances of the no deal. Some want to put pressure on parts of the Conservative party. It is an ‘operation fear’. Those threats will not work vis-à-vis the European Union … I cannot imagine that a British prime minister or a responsible British government is even considering seriously a no deal, playing with the economic future of the country and its people.” [...]

Full article on The Guardian 



© The Observer


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