Survey: Majority of Europeans want EU27 interests to be priority in Brexit talks

A new survey says that some 78 per cent of European believe that the primary objective for the upcoming Brexit negotiations should be to protect the interests of the remaining EU27.

EU and UK flags | Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

By Martin Banks

Martin Banks is a senior reporter at the Parliament Magazine

29 May 2017


The results come as the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, confirmed that the talks with the UK will officially start on 19 June.

That will signal the start of about 15 months of talks to hammer out the terms of Britain's exit from the EU.

The UK general election will take place on 8 June and only then will it be known who Britain's Brexit secretary will be.


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Barnier wants to reach agreement on citizens' rights, the UK's divorce bill and on the border of Ireland in a first phase of talks he hopes will be concluded by the end of 2017.

The European Council will decide by consensus on whether sufficient progress has been made for talks to progress. If deemed appropriate by the EU, Barnier will spend from December 2017 to the spring of 2018 negotiating the scope of a future trade deal with the UK.

Only two years of talks are allowed under article 50 of the Lisbon treaty.

Meanwhile, the findings of an opinion poll on Brexit conducted by the polling institute Red C Research show that 92 per cent want the emphasis to be on protecting the future economies of the remaining member states.

Slightly over 90 per cent want the talks to focus on enhancing the financial markets in the remaining member states in order to ensure financial stability, while 89 per cent say the focus should be on the longer term interests of the remaining EU27 states, rather than on short-term economic gains.

Nearly nine out of 10 want Barnier and his team to ensure that the UK pays any outstanding financial obligations to the EU while 87 per cent are keen to ensure that there is no introduction of second class EU citizens.

Only 22 per cent of those polled want the focus to be on building a new economic relationship with the UK, giving it special privileged conditions post-Brexit. 

Parliament's EPP group leader Manfred Weber said the findings concur with what his group, has been calling for.

The German MEP said, "The group has always made it clear that our priority in the negotiations with the UK on Brexit was to defend the interests of EU citizens. The results of the opinion poll show that a large majority of EU citizens support this approach. This reinforces the position we took at an early stage."

Weber added, "In early 2019, the European Parliament will have the huge responsibility of saying Yes or No to the divorce agreement with the UK. We are the only institution directly elected by the European citizens.

"When examining the conditions of Brexit, our first priority will always be to secure a good future for them," he said.

 

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