Wolfgang Schäuble's recent comments (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/spiegel-interview-with-wolfgang-schaeuble-on-brexit-a-1096999.html) to the effect that Britain could not gain access to the single market from the outside should at least partly be read as stemming from the perception that what Brexiters centrally want is an end to free movement of labour.
It's not an altogether fair summary of what the Leave campaign wants -- there are issues of sovereignty and legitimacy and many others besides -- and I think davywavy is absolutely correct in that both sides would ultimately try to make a deal. So there's also an element of bluster in the Schäuble interview. What bothers me about this is that we -- the rest of Europe -- don't actually seem to know what the UK wants out of a separation deal, and since the EU position would have to be cobbled together on the basis of our various national positions, we don't know what our negotiating position in the separation negotiations would be, either. I'm terrified that right now Brussels seem to be preparing for separation negotiations with little to no firm concept of what end results either side actually aims for.
(For the sake of full disclosure, I would rather like the UK to stay in the Union, although I'll also grant that my position on this isn't entirely altruistic, and that I'm not entirely within my rights to voice opinions on the major decisions of other countries. I will also admit that I've already once misjudged the British mood -- traditionally I've favoured giving the UK goodies as generously and as often as necessary, but when Cameron went to strike a reform deal with the rest of the EU, I figured Labour would come swinging in favour of continued membership, and assumed that we could just toss a compromise based on minor reform in Cameron's direction, and then he could go come and pretend he'd won something, and it'd be basically okay-ish for us. The very day after the news broke, my heart sank, and I started thinking that we should've given the UK substantially more. I'm not clear on what that might've been, because free movement is core to the project, but... still, we should've found something more.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2016-06-13 03:30 pm (UTC)It's not an altogether fair summary of what the Leave campaign wants -- there are issues of sovereignty and legitimacy and many others besides -- and I think
(For the sake of full disclosure, I would rather like the UK to stay in the Union, although I'll also grant that my position on this isn't entirely altruistic, and that I'm not entirely within my rights to voice opinions on the major decisions of other countries. I will also admit that I've already once misjudged the British mood -- traditionally I've favoured giving the UK goodies as generously and as often as necessary, but when Cameron went to strike a reform deal with the rest of the EU, I figured Labour would come swinging in favour of continued membership, and assumed that we could just toss a compromise based on minor reform in Cameron's direction, and then he could go come and pretend he'd won something, and it'd be basically okay-ish for us. The very day after the news broke, my heart sank, and I started thinking that we should've given the UK substantially more. I'm not clear on what that might've been, because free movement is core to the project, but... still, we should've found something more.)