Brexit, the General Election and the Four Freedoms.
In the General Election, there will be various proposals put forward on Brexit, the Single Market and the Four Freedoms. There will be suggestions that the UK can have a Brexit deal with access to the Single Market without Freedom of Movement. EU leaders have stated from last June that this is a non-starter. If any candidate suggests such a possibility, they should be asked further questions as to how this could be achieved.
Here are some quotes which state what the Single Market is and what Donald Tusk (European Council President) has said regarding it and Brexit. Similar statements can be found from other EU leaders (eg Merkel, Macron, Juncker and Verhofstadt).
European Union (One market without borders) –
“In the EU’s single market (sometimes also called the internal market) people , goods , services , and money can move around the EU as freely as within a single country. “
“Leaders [of EU27 countries] made it crystal clear today that access to the single market requires acceptance of all four freedoms, including the freedom of movement. There will be no single market “à la carte”.
“The only real alternative to a hard Brexit, is no Brexit”.
In his speech at a conference sponsored by the European Policy Centre, Tusk mocked the leading proponents of Brexit who had promised British voters that when it came to the EU, they would be able to have their cake and eat it, too.
“The words uttered by one of the leading campaigners for Brexit and proponents of the ‘cake’ philosophy was pure illusion — that one can have the EU cake and eat it, too,” Tusk said. “To all who believe in it, I propose a simple experiment: buy a cake and eat it and see if it is still there on the plate.”
John Rogan May 8, 2017.
