European ministers have stated that the UK will receive no special treatment in its future economic relationship with the European Union, delivering a further blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's hopes of negotiating a single market for goods.
During a meeting on Tuesday, the EU's ministers for Europe expressed a desire for deeper cooperation with the UK, but emphasized that this must adhere to fundamental principles, including the prohibition of cherrypicking EU policies, according to three diplomatic sources familiar with the private discussions.
Last week, The Guardian revealed that the UK government had proposed the creation of a single market for goods between the UK and EU to Brussels, but the idea was rejected by EU officials. A single market for goods, long hinted at by Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves, would represent a radical departure for the EU. Since the Brexit vote nearly a decade ago, EU leaders have maintained that the single market encompasses four freedoms: free movement of goods, services, capital, and people.
EU sources indicated that Europe ministers had no appetite for the British proposal of free movement of goods only, although the idea was only briefly mentioned at Tuesday's meeting. An EU diplomat stated: “Member states reaffirmed the established legal framework underpinning the relationship and negotiations, with continued emphasis on the indivisibility of the four freedoms, balance of rights and obligations, autonomy of EU decision-making, and the avoidance of cherrypicking.”
The diplomat added that Maroš Šefčovič, the EU commissioner in charge of UK relations, concluded “that the EU remains united in its ambition to deepen ties, while the UK’s red lines are increasingly constraining progress.” The European Commission declined to comment.
France has indicated it would be willing to welcome the UK back into the European single market and customs union, reflecting the changed geopolitical landscape since Brexit. EU officials have also stressed that a customs union or alignment with the single market remains available to the UK. However, some member states are sceptical about the UK’s willingness to be a rule taker. Joining the single market without EU membership would leave the UK without a vote when new rules are being drawn up.
A second EU diplomat described the relationship with the UK as “the best that we have had in a very long time” but noted that “the UK still wants to have the cake and eat it.” EU member states, the person said, “value and cherish” stable relations and want to work with the UK, but “this does not mean the UK and the EU are equal partners.”
Questions are growing about Starmer’s reset with the EU, with no date announced for a long-expected EU-UK summit, tentatively pencilled in for 13 July. The summit is meant to finalise a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to ease trade in food, drink, and farm products, an accord on linking emissions trading systems (ETS), and a youth experience scheme enabling young Europeans to work, study, and travel across the UK and EU. It is also seen as a moment to launch a future agenda for cooperation, with both sides interested in deepening ties on defence.
Asked about the future EU-UK relationship, Ireland’s Europe minister, Thomas Byrne, told reporters: “We have matters to agree now: the ETS, SPS, and youth experience scheme. Let’s focus on them before we get on to any other discussions, which also present difficulties. We certainly want to be as open as possible in the relationship.” When specifically asked about the UK’s single market for goods proposal, he said: “It presents challenges.”
