Britain cannot pay for access to single market, says former British EU offical

Britain will not be able to buy access to the European single market once it leaves the bloc, a former British European Commision official said.

Jonathan Faull, who retired from the Commission last week, told BBC Newsnight on Thursday that access to the single market was not “for sale”.

“I don’t think it is a question of buying your way somehow into the single market.

“You’re a member of the single market either as a member of the European Union or the European Economic Area, or you’re a foreign country outside it and you conclude agreements with the European Union if you want to and it wants to regarding the way in which your goods, services, capital and people move around.

"Or you don't and you have one or two international rules which apply and that's it, that's a choice to be made by both sides."

Brexit Secretary David Davis previously said that the UK could make contributions to the EU budget in order to maintain access to the single market.

Prime Minister Theresa May is set to trigger the formal process of extricating Britain from the EU by the end of March, but is clambering to form a negotiating team after the recent resignation of EU ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers and the subsequent appointment of veteran diplomat Sir Tim Barrow on Thursday.

May is anticipated to give a major speech on Brexit soon and is expected to say she will prioritise curbs on immigration of over the single market, while a group of 30 business leaders have written to the Prime Minister to keep the country in the single market.

It has been suggested that Britain could adopt the Norway model, access to the single market and paying contributions to the EU budget, but Norway also adheres to the principle of the free movement of people.

Faull also said that May could be repeating the same mistakes her predecessor David Cameron made when negotiating with the EU, if May thought Angela Merkel would be more benevolent to Britain should she win the election in Germany later this year.

"I think it would be a mistake to see the EU institutions as somehow wholly different from the 27 countries. These are all actors that will be working together on this.

"I think one should look perhaps at the experience of the negotiations which took place before the referendum. where perhaps some similar thoughts were expressed and turned out not to be fully realised."

European security

He also said that the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier thinks that Britain is important to security in Europe as Banier has “done a lot of work in recent years on defence and strategy issues”.

Faull said that Banier “believes the UK is absolutely crucial to the defence and security of Europe, the continent, and Franco-British co-operation in defence and security matters is extremely important and he will want, and I think all Europeans will want, a way to be found for that to continue”.

He added: "That's more complicated if you're outside the EU, because part of the mechanisms used for this purpose are today EU mechanisms - so all of that will have to be looked into."