On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum, Michel Barnier has declared that Britain could rejoin the European Union on terms that would allow it to keep the pound and remain outside the Schengen passport-free travel area.
The EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator said he could see ‘no obstacle’ to such an arrangement, casting serious doubt on suggestions from Poland’s foreign minister that the UK would face harder conditions if it sought to return. ‘I am speaking about Schengen, I am speaking about the single currency: there are other member states who are not in them,’ Barnier told the Guardian. ‘It is perfectly possible to have opt-outs in these fields.’
“Michel Barnier says UK could rejoin EU while keeping pound and staying out of Schengen, as referendum anniversary nears.”
His comments come ahead of next week’s milestone anniversary of the 2016 vote to leave, and will be seen as a boost to campaigners who argue that support for rejoining is stronger when the old terms remain on the table. Under EU treaties, all member states are expected eventually to join the euro, apart from Denmark, which has a permanent opt-out. Ireland is the only member with an official opt-out from Schengen. But Barnier, now a member of the National Assembly representing a Paris constituency, insisted that precedent allowed for flexibility.
Reflecting on his years at the heart of Brexit negotiations, Barnier recalled a weekend spent with Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, at a château in western France. ‘It was interesting. Boris was much more European at the beginning,’ he said of the former prime minister. ‘I don’t see it as a motivation but it is, perhaps, a method or attitude: to be pragmatic in some way. Cynical. Cynical to get power.’
Barnier, who was asked by former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to lead the EU’s negotiating team after the referendum, said he did not want to comment on whether the UK could also keep the rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher. ‘The DNA of the EU is solidarity that the more developed country helps the other … We will see if the UK decides to ask to join the EU. It will be a choice and it will be open to negotiation. I will be ready at that time for free advice.’
Barnier is due to be in London on Tuesday for a series of events marking the anniversary.