UK cannot 'cherry pick' EU single market deal, Barnier tells BBC

The former Brexit negotiator says EU countries would reject any British attempts to follow economic rules "a la carte". Michel Barnier says there will be 'no cherry-picking' in a deal for the UK to returns to the EU The prime minister has said rejoining the bloc's internal market was among options he could pursue as part of a reshaping of ties since the UK's exit from the EU nearly six years ago. But Michel Barnier told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that EU members would insist on the UK readopting certain conditions, such as the free movement of people, to gain access. He said there was not a "single market à la carte" menu from which the UK could pick and choose what elements it wanted to adopt.

Barnier – who led the EU delegation during Brexit talks between 2016 and 2021, and had a three-month spell as French prime minister in 2024 – said the "door is open" within Europe to the UK rejoining as an EU member. But he insisted that any move to rejoin the single market – which allows for goods to be freely traded without border controls – would require the UK to follow the same terms as other members. He added that this included compliance with regulations designed to promote the circulation of