Brussels Rebuffs UK Offer to reward Open Access to the single EU market

Keep –Logs informed with free updates

Simply register —vos at Trade Myft Digest: Delivered directly to the inbox.

Brussels has rejected a British push to reward open access to the UE’s unique market as part of a “reset” of post-bruise relationships, as conversations are intensifying ahead of a crucial summit in London next month.

Sir Keir Starmer, British Prime Minister, had requested a mutual recognition agreement with the EU to certify the standards of products that would have cut the red tape for British companies by sending goods to the blog unique market.

But France rejected the demand directly, according to EU diplomats, and there was a general agreement that the idea was a non -initial.

An EU diplomat said on Friday: “It will not happen. Switzerland has this, but they pay the EU budget and accept free movement.”

The skirmish is the beginning of a huge slope between Britain and the EU, which both parties wait will intensify in the fall, with the aim of ending an agreement at the end of the year.

Tight And Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said this week that countries should agree on a security and defense pact at the May 19 summit, opening the door to Britain to access a new EU. Defense Fund of 150 million euros.

In order to facilitate this agreement, Britain was expected to be launched on current EU fishing rights in the United Kingdom waters for several years, the Bloc diplomats said, possibly adjusting more discussions about the matter until after the next UK elections, scheduled for 2029.

In the meantime, there would also be a separate summit statement that I state a “common understanding” of the potential elements of a wider agreement at the end of the year, which includes issues that include youth mobility, energy safety and the easiest movement for British throughout Europe.

According to EU diplomats, Starmer’s envoy to Brussels, ex -treasure office, Michael Ellam, requested that the document should not be completed until next month to avoid “interfering” with the local English elections next Thursday.

The United Kingdom had asked three “questions” of Brussels, as the two parties seek to formulate the document that will constitute the basis of post-summer negotiations, according to EU Diplomats.

The EU Member States reported last week by the European Commission after talks with the United Kingdom, reacted fresh to the three British demands, which include an agreement to combat illegal migration, steps to improve access for tourist artists and an agreement on the certification of industrial goods.

The senior EU officials reported that Brussels had sent a clear signal that the Bloc would not offer the United Kingdom a so -called mutual recognition of conformity assessment, which would allow the merchandise certified in Britain to be put directly into the single market.

Diplomats said that Brussels’s refusal points to the boundaries of UK’s ability to eliminate commercial barriers with the EU as they join their red lines in not joining the single market or re-entering a customs union with the blog.

They also warned a yield agreement called, where illegal migrants in the United Kingdom would be sent back to the EU countries where they first entered the blog, was also unlikely, considering concern about migration to Member States.

In recent weeks the The United Kingdom and France have been in conversationsReported by The Financial Times, about a migrant return agreement that would imply a person deported from the United Kingdom in exchange for France by sending another person in the other way.

However, there is a skepticism that this agreement could be expanded in a multilateral pact.

The United Kingdom, although it rejects the EU’s expansive version of a youth mobility scheme for children aged 18 to 30, also pressures an agreement to improve access for British artists and musicians who, after a pressure brooch in the industry.

Starmer included this agreement in the Labour 2024 electoral manifesto, despite the European Commission, which has already warned the previous conservative administration that the improvement of access for musicians and their teams required elements of access to the single market that both main political parties in the United Kingdom have ruled out.

EU diplomats did not completely rule out that concessions could be submitted to the United Kingdom by Member States that were committed to facilitating artists’ visas. In migration, British citizens could also receive access to automated electronic doors when they arrive at EU airports.

Ellam told the EU negotiators that any youth mobility scheme should be covered with a quota to control numbers, according to EU officials. The British side indicated similar programs with countries like Canada had higher limits.

A spokesman for the United Kingdom government said: “We do not comment on our discussions with the EU; they are treating and covering a wide range of issues.”