EU accepts inevitable informal negotiations before Article 50

[sirja]

All of this means nothing. I think anybody with an iota of common sense knows that informal talks have already started and I expect them to continue through the end of the year. At the end of the day, the big question remains will the UK get full access to the single market, while not accepting free movement? I maintain that will NEVER be accepted by the EU(Despite all the hot air from the leavers) and ultimately at some point this country will have to accept that leave really means leave with all that comes with that.

[sirja]

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I haven't bothered to look it up, so may well be entirely wrong, but aren't the German elections due in March? Whenever they are, Merkel will get something of a hammering, rightly or wrongly. So by April she will in no position to dictate anything to the UK or anyone else.

And do you think whoever replaces her will be more amenable? Please understand it does not matter who the leaders of major EU nations are(As long as it's not the extreme right/left) they are all as one on the EU consensus. No mainstream German or French leader is going to green light single market access for the UK with no free movement. It's just not going happen. It would be much better if people understood that now, rather than a waste of 2 years to come to the same conclusion.

[GB9]

Correct me if I'm wrong, and I haven't bothered to look it up, so may well be entirely wrong, but aren't the German elections due in March? Whenever they are, Merkel will get something of a hammering, rightly or wrongly. So by April she will in no position to dictate anything to the UK or anyone else.

Quite possibly correct. Am I right in thinking the opposition are in favour of a referendum on the EU? Or is that the French? Or the Italians?

Now the horse has decided to bolt I can see the EU states descend into individual discussions with us. Much as Juncker the drunken might despise the idea.

[Mordac]

And do you think whoever replaces her will be more amenable? Please understand it does not matter who the leaders of major EU nations are(As long as it's not the extreme right/left) they are all as one on the EU consensus. No mainstream German or French leader is going to green light single market access for the UK with no free movement. It's just not going happen. It would be much better if people understood that now, rather than a waste of 2 years to come to the same conclusion.

Others (particularly those resident in Germany) will be far better equipped to answer that question, but my understanding is that Merkel is generally favourable towards the UK, so to answer your question, I very much doubt her successor with be any more amenable. The best we can probably hope for is for that individual to be no less amenable.

[Mordac]

Quite possibly correct. Am I right in thinking the opposition are in favour of a referendum on the EU? Or is that the French? Or the Italians?

Now the horse has decided to bolt I can see the EU states descend into individual discussions with us. Much as Juncker the drunken might despise the idea.

Certainly the French extreme right want one, and some Italians have spotted a bandwagon that they can get a cheap and easy headline from, but the big news in Germany right now is the migration crisis, and the general consensus seems to be that Merkel has made something of a horlicks of the whole thing.

[Mordac]

Quite possibly correct. Am I right in thinking the opposition are in favour of a referendum on the EU? Or is that the French? Or the Italians?

Now the horse has decided to bolt I can see the EU states descend into individual discussions with us. Much as Juncker the drunken might despise the idea.

I suspect we're about to find out how many real teeth he has.

[NotAllThere]

Nothing has been shattered; this is not news in any way. The Commission can be as "not thrilled" as much as it likes but as the ultimate power rests with the national leaders it's not relevant, and as the highlighted bit says it's not possible to stop informal negotiations and never was.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Exactly. Informal talks were banned by the prat Junk, but the UK and EU civil servants will been talking to each other since 24th June, through informal channels that the politicians aren't involved with. They've got jobs to get on with. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the UK civil service has detailed plans about how to Brexit, covering all contingencies.

[Mordac]

Exactly. Informal talks were banned by the prat Junk, but the UK and EU civil servants will been talking to each other since 24th June, through informal channels that the politicians aren't involved with. They've got jobs to get on with. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the UK civil service has detailed plans about how to Brexit, covering all contingencies.

Precisely - the sooner the idiot Juncker gets his P45, the smoother this whole process will be.

[CretinWatcher]

The public sector bods can talk all they like yada yada, meanwhile any international private sector manager of sound mind will certainly not be investing in the UK, unless it is something particular to this small market. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs depending on access to the single market/passporting particularly in manufacturing and finance.
The best we can expect is that existing investors wait and see, what we have started to lose immediately is any planned/proposed investment that was dependent on access to the single market.

This will become in obvious in the FDI figures in the months and years to come, a permanent shrinkage of the economy.

[BrilloPad]

Merkel will get something of a hammering, rightly or wrongly.

Its a job for FLC....