'No bespoke Brexit!' Italian minister DISMISSES rumours EU ready to make UK tailored offer
ITALY's Europe Minister Sandro Gozi said there is "no room" for a bespoke Brexit transition deal due to time restrictions days after PM Paolo Gentiloni called for the EU to offer a "tailor-made" deal to Britain.
Mr Gozi said negotiations for a Brexit transition deal would only take time away from discussing the final arrangement between the UK and the EU.
The Italian minister said: "We need to use our time, our energy, in order to prepare the future relationship instead of spending months in negotiating a transition period.
"I don’t see particular room to shape a bespoke transition deal. It’s even too complicated to say, imagine doing it."
BBC
Speaking ahead of a crucial EU Council vote, Mr Gozi said the best solution for Britain would be to remain in the single market and the customs union – and accept EU rules for the whole transition period.
The British Government announced early in the year its Brexit strategy included plans to leave the EU common market to end EU trade law influence on British trade.
Mr Gozi told BBC Radio 4 Today: "If you remain in the single market or in the customs union, you remain also in respecting the rules of the single market or the customs union.
"For the transition period, we need to wait for the proposal which the UK will come up with. In our view, it’s much better to concentrate energy in shaping the future relationship that in shaping a bespoke transition period."
It comes days after Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called on the European Union to offer Britain a "tailor-made" trade deal to facilitate the Brexit process.
Britain has long refused to adopt an "off the shelf" trade agreement and is keen for a bespoke model that will retain the deep ties between the UK and the EU.
Mr Gentiloni told the FT: “We need a tailor-made model for the relationship between the UK and the EU but the first move, in my opinion, has to come from the UK because the level of ambition needs to come from the side asking to leave.
“There can be models of reference based on deals the EU has with third countries but these were all done. . . building off a white sheet, tabula rasa [blank slate]."
Italian officials were keen to point out that Mr Gentolini’s comments did not reflect a difference in opinion between Brussels and Rome but instead showed an awareness of the different levels between the Norwegian and Canadian trade agreement models.
