The UK government’s recent attempts to solve its rising problems by re-joining EU programmes or staying in EU initiatives show how farcical Brexit has become and why the country should simply re-join the EU, the Rejoin EU Party has said.
Earlier this week, it was reported Britain has reached a preliminary agreement with the EU to access its border agency Frontex – which of course it used to be part of when it was an EU member – to control migration.
It comes after the UK said it was re-joining the EU’s Horizon scientific research and Copernicus Earth observation satellite programmes after scientists across the country protested about the risks that the country’s continued absence from them were posing to UK science and industry.
In early August, ministers said they were keeping the EU’s CE product-safety mark after industry and manufacturers complained about the extra costs and red tape they would face in complying with a proposed new UK alternative.
Meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce called yesterday for the UK to re-join the Pan-Euro Mediterranean convention, which would ease so-called rules-of-origin trade issues by allowing participating nations to treat goods made in one country – that contain parts from another member state – as originating wholly in the exporting nation.
“Tinkering at the edges”
Pressure is rising on ministers to re-join other EU schemes, such as the Erasmus student exchange programme, as it becomes ever clearer that leaving them was as foolhardy and costly as leaving the EU itself.
The leader of the Rejoin EU Party, Brendan Donnelly, welcomed the relative realism shown by Rishi Sunak’s government, but warned against over-optimism and complacency.
”The disaster which is Brexit cannot be cured by tinkering at the edges,” he said. “Nor can we be sure the Brexit-obsessed Conservative Party will be willing to tolerate further alignment with the EU. Until Brexit is completely reversed, this country can never be a stable and predictable partner for our European neighbours.”
Rejoin
Former Conservative MEP and Rejoin EU Party supporter John Stevens said: “The UK as a ‘third country’ can associate itself with a range of EU initiatives, but only on terms – particularly in respect of control, but also financial returns – significantly inferior to those we enjoyed as an EU member state.
“The main benefit of these deals will be to demonstrate what we’ve lost through Brexit and how re-joining the EU is the only way to make good that loss.
“But to re-join the EU, the British people will need to vote for politicians saying they’ll do so – and none of those in the leading parties are saying that at the moment. That’s the real problem of our politics which these side-deals reveal. If people want to re-join the EU, they should vote for the Rejoin EU Party.”
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