United Kingdom
Related: About this forumVisegrad Group of EU states set to veto any Brexit deal threatening free movement
In a stark reminder of the challenge Britain faces at the negotiating table, Robert Fico said Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia known as the Visegrad, or V4, group would not hesitate to block any future trade accord that threatened the key EU principle of free movement of workers.
The V4 countries will be uncompromising, Fico said on Saturday, a day after EU leaders met informally in Bratislava, without Britain, to try to chart a roadmap for the blocs future after the shock of the Brexit vote.
Unless we feel a guarantee that these people (living and working in Britain) are equal, we will veto any agreement between the EU and Britain, Fico told Reuters. I think Britain knows this is an issue for us where theres no room for compromise.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/sep/17/eastern-bloc-countries-will-uphold-citizens-rights-to-live-in-uk
If they did veto such a deal, then I presume it would mean that, 2 years after invoking Article 50, the UK is out, with no agreement about free movement or the single market. That would suit the extreme Brexiters, but could cause all sorts of economic problems. Harder to export, and labour costs up as the cheap Eastern European labour becomes unavailable.
RogueTrooper
(4,665 posts)I can't help but think of this quote from the Bible when I think of of Britain's decision to leave the EU. Nothing else explains the phenomena of people voting to leave as well as this quote (I think) .
I fear that the extreme brexiters are going to have a disproportionate influence on the exit negotiations and, as a consequence, they will get exactly what they want: Hard Brexit (by default in this case). With no agreement the UK will be in dire straits. The EU has a history of acting quite aggresivly towards those who transgress its rules and social contracts (see Switzerland).
The loudest voice in Brexit can be paraphrased as
The result will be Biblical.
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)I keep being reminded of Ogden Nash's verses:
Foreigners are people somewhere else,
Natives are people at home;
If the place youre at
Is your habitat,
Youre a foreigner, say in Rome.
But the scales of Justice balance true,
And tit leads into tat,
So the man whos at home
When he stays in Rome
Is abroad when hes where youre at....
Theres many a difference quickly found
Between the different races,
But the only essential
Differential
Is living different places.
Yet such is the pride of prideful man,
From Austrians to Australians,
That wherever he is,
He regards as his,
And the natives there, as aliens.
Oh, Ill be friends if youll be friends,
The foreigner tells the native,
And well work together for our common ends
Like a preposition and a dative.
If our common ends seem mostly mine,
Why not, you ignorant foreigner?
And the native replies
Contrariwise;
And hence, my dears, the coroner...
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)though there's a part of me that sees some hypocrisy in it, given that 3 of the 4 governments in question have a breathtakingly horrible attitude to refugees (I except the Czech Republic from this). But the UK has been both horribly hypocritical and horribly foolish on anything to do with the EU!