The EU should begin trade talks with Britain relatively soon and has no plan to impose a “punitive” Brexit agreement that would weaken London as a financial centre, Spain’s foreign minister has said.
Alfonso Dastis made clear in an interview that Spain was sympathetic to several key British demands — notably London’s call to negotiate a trade deal at the same time as the separation talks with the EU.
By contrast Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, maintains that the two sides need to agree a divorce deal before they can move on to trade — which could disrupt trade ties when Britain finally leaves the bloc.
“It would actually be good, while we speak about the separation, to also define where we want to be in terms of a new framework [for EU-UK relations],” Mr Dastis said in an interview a week after Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, set out her priorities for Brexit.
“We are interested in getting a result that is good for both sides. We won’t give up that interest for the sake of strict procedural requirements.”
The Spanish foreign minister also voiced support for a “transitional agreement” to avoid a disorderly British exit from the EU at the end of the two-year deadline for negotiations.
“We don’t see this as a battle in which one side has to come out as the victor and the other as the vanquished,” he said. “I don’t see any intention to be punitive.”
We don’t see this as a battle in which one side has to come out as the victor and the other as the vanquished
His comments are likely to please the British government, since Spain is considered in the centre ground among the EU member states with which Mrs May must strike a deal.
“Our priority is to preserve the unity of the EU and to preserve the fundamental principles of the European project,” Mr Dastis added. “At the same time, we want to preserve a close relationship with the UK. We think that is possible.”
On the issue of Gibraltar, seen by some as a potentially serious stumbling block for the talks, Mr Dastis said: “My personal opinion is that we won’t put Gibraltar at the centre of negotiations. The situation is actually very clear and there is nothing for us to ask for: The UK leaves the EU and Gibraltar leaves the EU. If Gibraltar wants to make a life outside the EU, they are perfectly free to do so.”
Mr Dastis, a career diplomat who served as Spain’s representative to the EU before being appointed foreign minister in November, praised Mrs May for what he described as her “useful” speech on Brexit last week.
“It clarified things in the sense that we know she wants a free-trade agreement that is both deep and wide,” he said. “It should be possible to achieve that, though whether it will ultimately satisfy the UK I don’t know. The devil is in the detail.”
He insisted the EU had no desire to foist an unfavourable Brexit deal on Britain simply to dissuade other states from leaving. “I think the case of Brexit is singular and very specific to the UK. The UK never felt comfortable inside the union and sometimes we didn’t feel comfortable with the UK either,” he said.
Arguing that the EU was not aiming to take business from the London financial centre, he added: “What we want is to preserve the integrity of the internal market and preserve the preferential status of those countries that are inside the union. But that does not mean weakening the City.”
Mr Dastis added: “We would have preferred to keep the UK inside the EU but with regard to other member states I think the deal with the UK will have to be pretty amazing for them to say: ‘Yes, now we also want to leave’ . . . I don’t think the case of Brexit is repeatable.”
The foreign minister also argued that Brexit would bring advantages for Spain and other remaining states: “This is an opportunity for the EU to make a leap forward. We can now have greater cohesion than we had when the UK was a member.”
Mr Dastis dismissed as “probably unnecessary” British warnings that the country could adopt a low-tax Singapore-style business model in an effort to lure companies to post-Brexit Britain.
“I don’t think it is a very realistic scenario,” he said, pointing out that the “UK needs tax revenues” and that an uncontrolled race to lower tax rates “hurts everybody”.
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