THE shock resignation of the UK ambassador to the European Union, Sir Ivan Rogers, continued to reverberate around Europe yesterday with the Prime Minister of Norway saying that British negotiators’ lack of experience could see the UK end up with a “very hard Brexit”.
Erna Solberg’s views are important because many people see a Norwegian-type solution as the best way of avoiding a hard Brexit.
Though not in the EU, Norway is part of the single market and allows free movement for EU workers.
It also contributes to the EU budget and participates in Europe’s open-border Schengen agreement. A hard Brexit would see no access to the single market, and Solberg voiced the fear that the UK was heading that way.
Solberg said: “We do feel that sometimes when we are discussing with Britain, that their speed is limited by the fact that it is such a long time since they have negotiated. I fear a very hard Brexit, but I hope we will find a better solution.”
Her views were aired on the day that Jonathan Marland, a former trade envoy for David Cameron who chairs the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, also said he did not think Whitehall had the skills to conduct successful Brexit talks.
“My fear is that Whitehall as a whole has really not got the skill set to deliver a really hard-nosed negotiation,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“And I think we have really got to up-skill in that area to do it.”
Solberg said it would be very hard for the UK to accept the EU’s “four freedoms” – of movement of goods, capital, people, and services – without having a vote in the EU Council.
She added: “I hope that we will find a solution that leaves Britain as a partner in a lot of the European activities that we need them to be a partner in.”
A spokesman for Britain’s Department for Exiting the EU said the Government was preparing for a “smooth and orderly exit” and was confident a deal could be reached that worked in the interests of both sides.
He said: “We have been clear that we are seeking a bespoke arrangement that is unique to Britain, one that gives our businesses the maximum freedom to trade with and operate in the single market but also allows us to make our own decisions on immigration.”
Meanwhile the row over Rogers’ departure – he has been immediately replaced by Sir Tim Barrow, former ambassador to Moscow – rumbled on as opposition parties at Westminster continued to seek the Government’s response to his declared view that Theresa May and her colleagues were guilty of “muddled thinking” and had no clear objectives for Brexit.
Theresa Villiers, the former Northern Ireland secretary and a prominent leave campaigner, told Sky News: “I thought Sir Ivan’s resignation email was, I don’t know, rambling, a bit emotionally needy.
“Not something you would expect from a civil servant of that calibre.” Rogers advised the Cabinet last October that negotiating post-Brexit trade deals might take “ten years” but friends and colleagues yesterday insisted he was merely representing the views of the other 27 EU countries.
In other Brexit news, the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane said that the UK economy had done better than expected in the second half of last year but over the longer term, the Bank of England still expected Brexit to harm growth.
Haldane also admitted that his own profession was having problems: “It’s a fair cop to say that the profession (of economists) is in crisis.”
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