Czech negotiator: To keep EU free trade, UK must suffer EU g
BRITAIN must grant access to foreign workers, contribute to the EU's budget and submit to European authority to keep single-market access, says top Czech negotiator Tomas Prouza.
Mr Prouza, state secretary for EU affairs in Prague, was reacting to "completely unrealistic" proposals from British ministers who refused to believe what their civil servants told them about having to obey they EU if they expect unhindered access to the free-trade zone.
"There's a lot of frustration among the EU leaders, because what you sometimes hear from London is completely unrealistic," said Mr Prouza, reported Bloomberg.
"They will have to give up on some things. The very basis of diplomacy is reciprocity, and that's something they need to understand."
British Prime Minister Theresa May has refused to declare whether she'll push for access to the single market. She's also given few signals on when she'll trigger the start of Brexit talks, fuelling complaints from other EU members that stalling may harm the bloc's other 27 members.
One reason is that there is no way to skirt the EU's "four freedoms"- the unfettered movement of labour, goods, services and capital - without facing restrictions to the trading area comprising more than half a billion people, Mr Prouza said.
He doubted whether British banks could retain the right to raise funds and offer services in other EU countries without tariffs that has helped create London's position as a global financial centre.
"I'm very curious if the Brits will be able to say that the Bank of England will still be supervised by the ECB and the European Banking Authority," Mr Prouza said.
More broadly, British companies could continue to trade freely only if the country continues to pay into the bloc's budget and lets EU workers seek jobs on its territory - something the prime minister said will not happen.
That's a red line, especially for the Poles, Czechs, Hungarians and other ex-communist states whose citizens often travel to richer western countries for work since joining the EU.
Like all member states, each will be able to veto a Brexit deal if they oppose even one of its elements, Mr Prouza said.
With the UK "still dragging their feet," Mr Prouza said he wasn't convinced the British will can pull off the preferred scenario of simultaneously clinching a Brexit deal and a bilateral trade pact with the EU.
If that doesn't happen in the two-year window that starts after Britain triggers the process, standard World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules will apply.
The UK has about until March to trigger the process. Any longer and it may face hostility from the other members, Mr Prouza said.
"Anything after March, and we'll see the goodwill toward the UK diminishing very quickly," he said. "If there's no notification by March, what we'll see is the EU meeting much more in the form of 27 and trying to plan for the future without the UK," he said.
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