Von der
Leyen to departing Brits: Things will change
‘There’s a
great difference between being a member country or not,’ says European
Commission president.
By JANOSCH
DELCKER 2/1/20, 11:06 AM CET Updated 2/2/20, 3:32 AM CET
Britain’s
departure from the European Union will make it harder for the country to profit
from the bloc’s lucrative market, European Commission President Ursula von der
Leyen said.
“One thing
has to be clear: There’s a great difference between being a member country or
not,” von der Leyen told German television Friday evening, hours before the
United Kingdom left the bloc.
“Access to
the European Single Market — the largest single market in the world — will
become more difficult for our British friends,” she said.
Britain
left the EU Friday night after 47 years of membership, after British voters
approved the departure in a referendum over three and a half years ago.
The bloc of
remaining 27 EU countries and the U.K. have agreed that for a transition period
until the end of the year, current rules and regulation will remain in effect,
giving them 11 months to negotiate the details of their future relationship on
issues ranging from trade to product standards to cross-border data flows.
"We
will work day and night [and] we are in a strong starting position. At the end
of the year, we will see where we stand," von der Leyen said Friday,
adding that, "we will only put a signature under a treaty once everything
has been negotiated and once we have come up with a balanced package."
She said
the negotiations so far had shown “the high value of unity” for the EU. It has
paid off for the EU27 to “stand together, be united and conduct the
negotiations calmly and fairly,” she said.
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