Brexit: EU considers migration ‘emergency brake’ for UK for up to seven years

[uawchild]

Source: The Guardian - UK

Plans to allow the United Kingdom an exemption from EU rules on freedom of movement for up to seven years while retaining access to the single market are being considered in European capitals as part of a potential deal on Brexit.

Senior British and EU sources have confirmed that despite strong initial resistance from French president François Hollande in talks with prime minister Theresa May last week, the idea of an emergency brake on the free movement of people that would go far further than the one David Cameron negotiated before the Brexit referendum is being examined.

If such an agreement were struck, and a strict time limit imposed, diplomats believe it could go a long way towards addressing concerns of the British people over immigration from EU states, while allowing the UK full trade access to the European market.

While the plan will prove highly controversial in many member states, including France, Poland and other central and eastern European nations, the attraction is that it would limit the economic shock to the EU economy from Brexit by keeping the UK in the single market, and lessen the political damage to the European project that would result from complete divorce.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/24/brexit-deal-free-movement-exemption-seven-years

[pampango]

1. Hope the EU does not do that. The UK with its conservative government is not 'exceptional'.

If if wants to restrict immigration in a way that is incompatible with EU standards, the UK can and should exit the EU. If the UK still wants to be a part of Europe's single market, it should have to abide by EU standards in the same way that Norway does.

If the UK's conservative wants to be free of all the EU standards on labor rights, the environment and others areas (that Norway complies with), then it should withdraw from the European single market as well. A country does not have to belong to the EU to be a part of the single market but it does have to agree to abide by its rules.

Allowing the UK to remain part of the single market while granting it a 7-year exemption from being required to follow the rules that everyone else follows seems like a terrible idea. If the Tories want Brexit, give it to them.