MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Senior advisors propose a post-Brexit Britain “continental partnership” with EU

The release comes hours before UK's minister in charge of Brexit, David Davis, will set out more detail on UK's plans for Brexit in a statement to parliament

A senior German lawmaker, an adviser to the French prime minister and a former deputy head of the Bank of England have proposed that a post-Brexit Britain form a new “continental partnership” with the EU.

 The release comes hours before UK's minister in charge of exiting the European Union, David Davis, will set out more detail on Theresa May' government's plans for Brexit in a statement to parliament on Monday.

In a paper published on Monday by the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank, five experts argue that Britain be given a say in the affairs of a more closely integrated European Union in return for contributing to shared security and budgets as well as accepting a degree of easy immigration for European workers.

A key aim would be to avoid a rancorous split following the British vote to quit the Union on June 23, further diminishing the clout the continent will have in the world. “Neither the UK nor the continuing members of the EU can escape their geographical interdependencies. Both have a stake in economic and political stability in Europe,” they wrote.

“Today's volatile and dangerous world requires its nations to collaborate to confront new and multiple challenges. The longer-run prospect of a future world in which Europe is only one amongst many powerful regions demands the same”.

The group comprises: Jean Pisani-Ferry, who runs policy planning for Socialist French Prime Minister Manuel Valls; Norbert Roettgen of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, who chairs the Bundestag foreign affairs committee; former Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker; Belgian economist Andre Sapir, a former adviser to the European Commission president; and Bruegel Director Guntram Wolff. Some Brexit campaigners who argue that geography matters less in the digital economy and that Britain should not barter sovereignty for access to the EU's markets.

Their advocacy of a deal, unlike that currently given to other non-EU states such as Norway or Switzerland, that would give Britain access to EU markets while accepting voters' rejection of full free movement for EU workers reflects types of Brexit compromise that officials are starting to think about.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants a new kind of relationship from those already set up by the Union.

The Bruegel authors suggest a Europe of two circles in which the EU core, bound more tightly than today around the euro - would consult with Britain and others like Norway, Switzerland and one day perhaps Turkey or Ukraine - giving outer members of such a Continental Partnership a voice but no veto on policy.

“This is an historic and positive moment for our nation. Brexit isn't about making the best of a bad job. It is about seizing the huge and exciting opportunities that will flow from a new place for Britain in the world,” Brexit minister David Davis said in a statement ahead of his address to parliament.

“There will be new freedoms, new opportunities, new horizons for this great country.”

On Sunday May said the statement would be “about the work that the government has been doing over the summer and obviously how we are going to take that forward in shaping the sort of relationship we want with the EU.”