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France's Macron on What Brexit Deal Could Look Like: Key Quotes

France's Macron on What Brexit Deal Could Look Like: Key Quotes

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday, in an interview recorded Thursday. Here are the key lines on Brexit:

  • On the future EU-U.K. relationship:

“It will be by definition less deep than today, because the deepest possible relation is being a member of the European Union.”

France's Macron on What Brexit Deal Could Look Like: Key Quotes

“As you decided to leave, you cannot be part of the single market. But in function of the nature of the negotiation, you can have some deeper relations and some others. For instance, we have a deeper relation with Norway than the one we have with Canada.”

  • On Britain’s hope for a “bespoke” deal:

“For sure you will have your own solution” but “this special way should be consistent with the preservation of the single market and our collective interests. And you should understand that you cannot, by definition, have the full access to the single market if you don’t tick the box. And to get full access to the single market you need contribution to the budget, and you have to accept the freedoms, and the four pillars, and you have to accept the jurisdiction. As soon as you decide not to join these preconditions it’s not a full access. So it’s something perhaps between this full access and a trade agreement.”

  • On access to the EU’s single for U.K. financial services:

“It depends on the proposals made by the U.K., but for sure full access for financial services to the single market is not feasible given the functioning of the single market. So by definition it’s not a full access.”

  • Is a passporting deal off the table?

“It depends on what you’re ready to put on the table in terms of precondition. If you respect the precondition to get access to the single market, it’s feasible. But there is not cherry-picking in the single market. Because it’s not feasible. Because otherwise that’s a dismantling of the single market.”

  • What if that risks cutting the EU off from London’s financial markets?

“My willingness is not precisely to unplug, as you say, the British City, I think it doesn’t make sense. Because it’s part of the whole financing of our European Union. But for sure, if there is no change in terms of full access to the financial single market it doesn’t make sense for the other.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

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