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The EU says Theresa May's Brexit trade plans are based on a 'failed' model

The UK's plan to strike a generous EU trade deal after Brexit has been put into doubt by the senior adviser to the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier.

  • Theresa May called last week for a system of "mutual recognition" with the EU after Brexit.
  • However, a senior adviser to the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has cast serious doubt on the idea.
  • "Mutual recognition has failed," said Stefaan de Rynck at a talk in London on Monday evening.

LONDON — Theresa May's plan to strike a generous EU trade deal after Brexit has been thrown into doubt by a senior adviser to Europe's chief Brexit negotiator, who dismissed her trade plans as being based on a "failed" model.

May last week called for

However, Michel Barnier's chief adviser Stefaan de Rynck said that the EU had moved away from a mutual recognition system — whereby member states recognised each other's different rules on financial services — since the financial crisis in 2008, and now favoured a much more centralised approach whereby EU bodies create and regulate most of the rules.

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"Mutual recognition has failed," he said in a speech at LSE in London.

He described a "single European Union rulebook with common enforcement structures" and made clear that the system relies on the involvement of the European Court of Justice, which Theresa May has frequently ruled out.

"If you are in a very integrated market with a third country but you don't have the joint enforcement structures, then you can see the potential for all kinds of difficult situations," he said.

He also said the unity of the EU 27 countries had surprised him more than any element and warned that the UK would be "unwise to try and break that unity."

The speech comes a day ahead of a speech by UK Chancellor Philip Hammond in which he sets out Britain's plans for financial services after Brexit.

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