#Brexit: PM Theresa Declares ‘’Single Market’’; EU Not For UK

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, World News Tuesday, January 17th, 2017

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – UK Prime Minister Mrs. Theresa May has declared Britain “cannot possibly” remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean “not leaving the EU at all”.

Still, she promised to push for the “greatest possible” access to the single market due to Brexit.
Mrs. Theresa in a long-awaited speech also announced that Parliament would get a vote on the final deal agreed between the UK and the European Union.

May promised an end to the UK’s “vast contributions” to the EU.

The PM used her speech to announce the UK’s priorities for Brexit negotiations, including:

Maintaining the common travel area between the UK and Irish Republic;
Tariff-free trade with the EU;
A customs agreement with the EU;
New trade agreements with countries outside the EU;
Continued “practical” sharing of intelligence and policing information and
“Control” of immigration rights for EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU

Mrs. May indicated that there would not be a “blow-by-blow” account of negotiations, set to get under way after Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is invoked by the end of March. It was not her intention to “undermine” the EU or the single market, she added.

However, she warned the EU against a “punitive” reaction to Brexit, as it would mean “calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe and it would not be the act of a friend”.

She restated: “This agreement should allow for the freest possible trade in goods and services between Britain and the EU’s member states.

Speaking further, Theresa reasoned that Brexit would ‘’give British companies the maximum possible freedom to trade with and operate within European markets and let European businesses do the same in Britain. But I want to be clear: what I am proposing cannot mean membership of the single market.” BBC