European leaders say they would embrace the UK if it decided to rejoin the EU, with the leaders of France and Spain hailing Andy Burnham’s dramatic break with a decade of British caution over Brexit.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that such a move would be “excellent news” and “a good decision”, adding: “Welcome back.”
His comments came during a joint press conference in Madrid with Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, who said Spain would welcome Britain back in the EU “with open arms”.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday declared that leaving the European Union had done “more harm than good” and opened the door to eventually rejoining the bloc.
EU officials and politicians have seized on Burnham’s candour, seeing it as the clearest acknowledgement from Downing Street since the 2016 referendum that Brexit has damaged Britain – and that the current relationship with Europe should not necessarily be regarded as permanent.
“A UK PM explicitly stating that Brexit has done more harm than good is both overdue and self-evident,” a senior European Commission official told The i Paper. “The EU will continue to engage in good faith, based on the clear understanding that closer ties with the UK can only be in the long-term strategic interest of both parties.”
For Brussels, Burnham’s intervention was the most positive speech on Europe by a British prime minister in years. Its significance was not that he committed the UK to rejoining – he did not – but that he acknowledged the existing relationship was inadequate and promised to examine where Britain should ultimately end up.
Mika Aaltola, a Finnish centre-right MEP and vice-chair of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, said Burnham had voiced what many Europeans have long believed.
“Burnham has said out loud what most of Europe has quietly concluded: Brexit weakened both sides. I repeat: both sides,” he said. “That honesty matters, and it is the most constructive signal from Downing Street in a decade.”
Just as importantly for EU leaders, Burnham has promised to set out the different options for Britain’s long-term relationship with Europe around the next UK-EU summit, expected in November, before seeking to establish where political consensus lies.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said they would welcome a UK return to the EU during a joint press conference in Madrid (Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP)For Brussels, the significance is less that any particular destination has been chosen, but more that Britain is finally preparing to choose one. That marks a potentially important change from the incremental approach of his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, who hemmed himself in with his self-imposed “red lines”, ruling out any return to the EU single market or the customs union, or restoring freedom of movement.
While new EU member states are technically expected to adopt the Euro, an opt-out protocol could be put in place, as it was for Denmark. Several EU countries are also not part of the Schengen area – but the single market remains a key issue.
Burnham’s indication is that the UK may not simply negotiate individual agreements to soften some of Brexit’s consequences, but will look at resetting its wider relationship with the EU.
But Aaltola cautioned that Burnham had offered a diagnosis rather than a strategy – and called for the upcoming summit to begin a “serious, time-limited process” to map out a relationship encompassing security, defence industry and economic resilience. Aaltola argued that Britain and the EU could no longer afford to remain merely “strategic acquaintances”.
The warmth in Brussels should not be mistaken for an EU offer. Officials have repeatedly insisted that London must first decide what it wants. The EU is unlikely to design a bespoke agreement and invite Britain to accept it – particularly after years spent resisting British attempts to gain selective access to the advantages of membership.
Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel after he delivered his keynote speech at the Labour Party Conference (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty)Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Centre think-tank, said it’s “positive” that Burnham has put the reopening of the question on the agenda, “but this needs to be followed with concrete progress that goes beyond the incremental steps we have seen so far”.
“In the longer term, the UK will have to tackle the red lines to make significant progress, especially in terms of economic integration,” he added.
Former Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff said the ball was now in the UK’s court. “The principal actor in the next stage was always going to be Britain,” he said, adding: “The discussion on options has to be transparent – and should include opposition parties.”
Duff said the main issue for Brussels is whether Britain would stick with any plan to rejoin. “The EU would want to know if any deal will hold, or if it will be reversed by a new government.”
Burnham’s intervention came just weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the striking suggestion that Canada could become the EU’s first “associate member”.
That timing may have helped focus minds in Downing Street. Canada is not eligible for conventional EU membership, because it is not a European state. Yet, Von der Leyen proposed building what she called the closest possible association with a partner outside Europe, spanning defence, technology, energy and economic security.
No such status currently exists, and it is far from clear whether the Canadian idea, if it ever came about, could provide a template for Britain – a former member sitting directly alongside the EU and far more deeply integrated with its economy. Or indeed whether London would even want it.
For Brussels, that question can come later. The immediate importance of Burnham’s speech is that a UK prime minister has stopped treating the post-Brexit settlement as the destination.
Ten years after the Brexit referendum, Downing Street is openly asking where Britain ultimately wants its European relationship to lead – and has begun putting dates in the calendar to get an answer.
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