Former Brexit negotiator Barnier: UK should get flexibility on euro and Schengen if it rejoins EU
The United Kingdom should be given the option to rejoin the European Union without adopting the single currency or joining the passport-free travel zone, the bloc’s former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Thursday. “The door is open,” said Barnier, who now serves as a French lawmaker, at POLITICO’s European Pulse Seminar. “If the British sovereignly choose to seek closer ties with [the EU], I don’t believe we can make it mandatory for them to adopt the euro, abandon the pound or rejoin Schengen.”
POLITICO reported last month that Brussels would be flexible on letting Britain stay out of the euro and the Schengen area if it ever applied to rejoin the EU. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants to eventually see the U.K. rejoin, even suggesting the proposal could make it into Labour’s next election manifesto. Burnham has said that options could include membership of the single market or customs union, but also rejoining wholesale.
Barnier, however, said there can be “no cherry-picking” when it comes to joining the single market — a line he often used as Brexit negotiator. Barnier, who spent roughly three months as French prime minister in 2024 before falling to a vote of no confidence in parliament, also weighed in on next year’s presidential election in his home country. He called the current atmosphere in French politics “pre-insurrectionary” and said he regrets that two radical candidates who want to fundamentally reshape the EU, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, are leading in the polls .
Left out here: Leaves out what changes the picture
Politico reports Barnier's "no cherry-picking" line on the single market but never says he tied it explicitly to freedom of movement, calling the four freedoms linked and not negotiable. Other outlets led on this condition. A reader of the headline about flexibility on Schengen could miss that free movement of people would still apply, though the cherry-picking line points to it.
How we know
- The Independent reported“As far as the freedom of movement is concerned, I can only repeat that the four freedoms are linked together and are not negotiable”UK can rejoin EU without adopting euro — but only on one condition, Barnier says (opens in a new tab)
- Daily Express reported“but would have to accept freedom of movement and Brussels' single market rules”Brexit bombshell as 'euro optional for rejoining EU' - but there's a massive catch (opens in a new tab)
Though Le Pen has dropped her previous calls for France to leave the EU, Barnier said the far-right candidate’s public comments point “clearly towards the end of the European project as we have been building it for the past 40 years.” He also insisted that Le Pen should not be compared to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — whom Barnier described as “pragmatic” and “pro-business” — despite the ideological proximity between the two nationalists on some points.
Barnier added that Le Pen’s platform, “in some respects, is not very different from the economic platform of Mr. Mélenchon, who is on the far left.” Jon Stone contributed to reporting.
Read the original article on politico.eu (opens in a new tab)