During Jean-Claude Juncker’s annual state of the union address he said that sections of the single market could “certainly not” be offered to countries outside the EU trading area.
These comments would appear to pour cold water on the Theresa May’s plan to keep Britain in the single market for goods after Brexit.
Juncker said: “We respect the British decision to leave our Union, even though we continue to regret it deeply.
“But we also ask the British government to understand that someone who leaves the Union cannot be in the same privileged position as a Member State.
“If you leave the Union, you are of course no longer part of our single market, and certainly not only in the parts of it you choose.”
May hoped to keep the UK in single market for goods, by signing up to a “common rulebook.” However, this agreement would not accept free movement or the European Court of Justice. This appears, from Juncker’s comments, to not be a possible outcome.
Juncker then went on to say that a state that went out to forge its own deal would not be as successful at the EU, he commented “No single member state would’ve been able to launch the satellites that 400m users around the world are already benefitting from. No member state could’ve done that on its own.”