Britain is still getting its house in order about how exactly Brexit is going to go down.
The Government wants access to the single market but also want to control the country’s borders. But Europe is playing hardball and isn’t willing to budge on its core “free movement of people”. Effectively this means the EU won’t let Britain be part of the single market without allowing European workers to work freely in the country.
This has left British Prime Minister Theresa May stuck between a rock and a hard place. Banks and businesses are pressing her to secure that single market access and secure the economy while MPs and politicians want her to make good on pre-vote promises to curb immigration from Europe.
If this wasn’t tough enough for the new PM, she’s now facing threats from four European countries that they will kibosh any Brexit deal with the EU unless she guarantees the right of their citizens to work in Britain.
Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, who are part of the Visegrad Group (V4), warned they would block any deal between Britain and the EU if there was any crackdown on their citizens working here.
“V4 countries will be uncompromising,” said Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, after an EU Summit in the capital Bratislava. “Unless we feel a guarantee that these people are equal, we will veto any agreement between the EU and Britain. I think Britain knows this is an issue for us where there’s no room for compromise.”
Mr Fico said the four countries shared a common interest in protecting their citizens’ rights to work in Britain.
He also backed up what the EU said on freedom of movement, saying this founding freedom must remain and that he was opposed to any “cherry picking” in negotiations, according to the Telegraph.
But Mrs May has said before that gaining control of EU migration will be central to any deal Britain strikes with Brussels to leave the EU. Something has to give, but what?
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