Former EU negotiator warns UK will not be able to pick and choose trade rules

Britain will not be able to pick and choose which elements of the European Union’s single market arrangements it wants if the country moves closer to the bloc, a former chief Brexit negotiator has warned. Michel Barnier said EU member states would insist the UK adopt measures such as the free movement of people if the country wants closer trade alignment in future. Mr Barnier, who was the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator between 2016 and 2021 – and briefly the French prime minister in 2024 – made the warning ahead of the EU-UK summit later this month.

The summit will be focused on breaking down post-Brexit trade barriers on food and farming, as well as working more closely on emissions trading, and making it easier for young people from the UK to work, live and study in Europe and vice versa. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said following the summit he wants the country to explore moving even closer to the EU. Options including re-joining the bloc could be put to the public in future, the Prime Minister has suggested, though he has ruled out any major changes before an election.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Barnier said further access to the EU would require Britain to accept its rules, warning there was not a “single market a la carte” from which the UK could pick and choose what elements it will adopt. The “door is open” for the UK to re-join, he said, while adding that single market membership would require compliance with EU rules on the circulation of goods, services, capital and people, the so-called “four freedoms” of EU membership.

“There will be no possibility to have one freedom and not the other. The four freedoms are clearly the four conditions to be inside a single market,” Mr Barnier said. The EU-UK summit will take place on November 20 in Brussels. Mr Barnier’s full BBC interview is set to be aired on Sunday.