Britain would not be able to rejoin the European Union on the special terms it enjoyed in the past, according to former EU Brexit officials. The warnings come as senior Labour politicians openly discuss a potential return to the bloc.
Georg Riekeles, a former adviser on the EU’s Brexit taskforce, said member states would likely take “a very warm, welcoming” stance but also a “hard-headed” one to a British membership application. “There is a strategic need for the EU and the UK to work together, but I don’t think there would be an appetite for opening up new decades of British exceptionalism,” he said. “The price of re-entry would be membership on normal terms.”
During its 47 years of EU membership, the UK achieved an unprecedented special status, including opt-outs from the single currency and Schengen zone, as well as a rebate on EU budget payments. Sandro Gozi, Italy’s former Europe minister, said “the tailor-made suit is gone” and that any re-entry negotiations would start with standard terms for all candidates.
Wes Streeting, a Labour MP, argued over the weekend that the UK should rejoin the EU in the future, reigniting rifts over Europe within the ruling party. Gozi predicted EU member states would welcome a British application, calling Brexit “a major disaster for the UK” but also “a loss for the EU”. He stressed that the EU’s attractiveness would be a key factor.
Riekeles added that the EU would need to see a “durable national consensus” that the UK has changed its mind. “The EU can work with a UK that knows what it wants. It struggles with a UK that wants the benefits of integration while keeping the politics of separation,” he said.
