Britain is welcome to change its mind and stay in the European Union, but it should not expect to keep getting its EU budget rebates or complex opt-outs from EU rules, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator said on Wednesday.
“On Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron, the new French president, spoke about an open door. That if Britain changes its mind it would find an open door,” Guy Verhofstadt told the chamber.
“I agree. But like Alice in Wonderland, not all the doors are the same.
“It will be a brand new door, with a new Europe, a Europe without rebates, without complexity, with real powers and with unity.”
The liberal former Belgian prime minister is a proponent of much closer integration with national governments giving up more powers to Brussels.
Like many on the continent, he has long criticised Britain’s entitlement, negotiated by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, to get about half its EU budget contributions back as a rebate.
Britain also enjoys many opt-outs from EU rules, including from ever joining the euro zone.
MAM reports that the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has indicated that June 19 will be the first formal day of Brexit talks.
On May 22, the EU Council authorised the start of Brexit talks and adopted its negotiating directives.(Reuters/NAN)