We want the UK back in EU but no cherry-picking our rules this time, top MEPs tell Metro

Top European lawmakers want Brexit Britain back in the EU, but won’t give the UK any special opt-outs to the rules, Metro can reveal.

After calls from Sadiq Khan and Zack Polanski for the UK to rejoin the EU, Metro got the views of Europe’s MEPs, who would have a crucial vote on allowing us back inside the bloc.

Party leaders and spokespeople representing a majority of the European Parliament said they would enthusiastically welcome a ‘Breturn’ to the EU.

However top lawmakers insisted that they would not allow Britain to ‘cherry-pick’ which rules to follow as a new member, unlike last time around.

This could mean the UK is forced to adopt the Euro and join the Schengen free movement area if it applied to rejoin the EU.

Leading figures from four of the seven political blocs in the European parliament – representing more than two-thirds of the 720 sitting MEPs – told Metro they wanted the UK back in Brussels.

Iratxe García, president of the centre-left S&D grouping, said they ‘always believed’ that Brexit was a mistake and that the UK ‘belongs’ in the EU.

The co-president of the Green bloc said the Brits ‘should absolutely rejoin the EU’ and that their door was ‘always open’.

Sean Kelly, the lead UK spokesperson in the largest grouping of MEPs, the EPP, said he ‘would welcome’ us back – a sentiment shared by the centrist Renew group.

David McAllister, a German MEP who heads up the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and UK contact group, called Brexit a ‘historical regret which I deeply regret’.

Even hardline Eurosceptic politicians – such as Irmhild Bossdorf from the far-right Europe for Sovereign Nations group – told Metro they wanted the alliance to expand if British voters wanted.

There were just two politicians, both from the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, who told Metro the British made the right call with Brexit.

Christine Anderson said: ‘The British voters made a good decision at the time. I currently see no convincing reason for surrendering British sovereignty to Brussels again.’

Could the UK rejoin the EU?

Any attempt to rejoin the EU would likely spark a huge debate about what rules the UK would have to accept to be let back in.

The British had used their status to carve crucial opt-outs on controversial parts of European integration – notably the single currency and the Schengen area of open borders.

But those exceptions don’t apply to new applicants – and EU rules dictate that all members have to adopt the Euro, except Denmark.

Top MEPs and Party leaders in Brussels overwhelmingly made clear they were in no mood to cut the UK any special deals.

Sandro Gozi, who chairs the EU delegation to the EU-UK Partnership Assembly, said: ‘There can be no ‘tailor-made’ conditions based on nostalgia for the past.

‘Any future accession must take place in accordance with the Union’s rules’.

Terry Reintke, co-president of the Green bloc of more than 50 MEPs, told Metro: ‘There can be no cherry-picking. The integrity of the Union and its common rules must be upheld.’

Two Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament, Victor Negrescu from the 136-strong S&D bloc and Martin Hojsík from Renew, agreed that ‘any potential return would naturally need to be based on principles and conditions that apply to all member states’.

Mr Hojsík insisted: ‘There should be no special arrangements or exceptions.’

The EPP’s vice-chair Jeroen Lenaers and UK spokesperson Sean Kelly agreed all the requirements for EU membership needed to be met by the UK.

Rihards Kols, a Latvian MEP from the right-wing ECR group, suggested that returning to pre-Brexit rules straight away was ‘wishful thinking’.

He added: ‘If the UK returns, it returns to the Union that exists today – with the same accession rules that apply to every candidate country.’

The Green Party, whose leader Zack Polanski has declared his support to rejoin the EU, agreed that ‘the UK cannot expect to cherry-pick the rules’ if they apply for new members.

The party added: ‘Nigel Farage and his Brexit cronies blew the favourable concessions we had, and they have nothing positive at all to show for their disastrous experiment

Their statement continued: ‘With public support for rejoining now stronger than ever and many EU politicians keen to see the UK return, the political circumstances are definitely more favourable than at any point since our exit ten years ago.’

Only 10 of the more than 70 MEPs who shared their views with Metro suggested they’d be willing to cut the UK some slack.

Greek MEP Nikos Papandreou said he was against ‘the idea that Great Britain needs to be “punished”‘ because of the referendum.

Irish representative Barry Andrews, chair of the EU Development Committee, agreed that letting the UK back in on pre-Brexit terms would be a ‘win-win for both sides.’

Lord Heseltine, former Deputy Prime Minister and arch-Remainer, said: ‘We should never have left the EU. It was a serious act of self harm. We should rejoin at the earliest possible moment and take our place in one of the world’s most powerful political powers.’

The EU Parliament’s president Roberta Metsola is firmly focused on existing UK-EU relations.

She told Metro: ‘What we want to see is   a strong EU-UK partnership that looks to the future and avoids resurrecting the ghosts of the past – this is the right moment to move forward and I am convinced that we can do that in a manner that respects the choice of the British people.’

A spokesperson for the EU Commission said: ‘The UK is our close and valued partner. The UK has chosen to leave the European Union. It was their sovereign decision. Any decision to rejoin the Union rests solely with the UK.’

The Cabinet Office was approached for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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