Germany Warns Against Britain Having It Easy Post Brexit

Germany's vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has warned that Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) must be dealt with appropriately without which the future of Europe could become doubtful.

He said that Britain must pay the price of exiting Europe as not doing so would result in destabilizing of the EU with other countries also leaving.

In a statement, Sigmar Gabriel said

Brexit is bad but it won’t hurt us as much economically as some fear – it’s more of a psychological problem and it’s a huge problem politically. If we organize Brexit in the wrong way, then we’ll be in deep trouble, so now we need to make sure that we don’t allow Britain to keep the nice things, so to speak, related to Europe while taking no responsibility.

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EU leaders have been consistently voicing their opposition to Britain retaining its single market access to Europe without permitting free labor movement correspondingly. They believe that this would be in violation of core EU principles. Gabriel’s warning comes as British Prime Minister Theresa May called for the first meeting of ministers on the subject of Brexit to be held later this week. A spokesperson for the government has said earlier that formal talks on the exit will not begin until the end of this year.

A UK group comprising cross-party members from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour has been calling on the government to not make a decision to completely shut its doors on the EU. Germany has been seen as Europe’s chief opinion-maker regarding the navigation of the contentious issue of Britain’s exit. Gabriel is also Germany’s economy minister and a deputy to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel has been meeting several European leaders over the past few weeks to prepare for a September summit that will discuss the future of the EU after Brexit. She has said all European leaders must pay attention to each other and avoid haste in decision making.

Merkel has also urged the member states to think about what can be done better within the Union.

Gabriel also commented on the ongoing discussion on The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This agreement between EU and U.S. seeks to remove several trade barriers between them in order to boost economic relations.

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He said that despite discussions being held for 14 rounds, no agreement has been reached between the two sides on even one of the 27 chapters that are currently under consideration.

He has expressed displeasure regarding a deal between the U.S and Canada that contains elements which the U.S had rejected in TIPP.

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