Verhofstadt on #Brexit: 'European values will never be up for negotiation'

During today’s (5 October) debate in the European Parliament about the upcoming European Summit, ALDE Group leader Guy Verhofstadt addressed the upcoming Brexit negotiations.

He laid out the conditions required to make the Brexit negotiations a success for all parties: “First, there will not be any pre-negotiations before the triggering of Article 50.”“Second, negotiations need to be finished before the next European elections. I cannot imagine Farage coming back to this Hemicycle.”

“Thirdly, the new EU-UK relationship needs to be a close one. In our interest and for the sake of 48% of British citizens who voted to remain in the Union.”

“And finally, whatever the new relationship, it can never infringe on the four fundamental freedoms. European values will never be up for negotiation.”

Verhofstadt urged EU leaders to finally work on a solution to the tragedy in Syria and clean up Europe's finances: “The first priority of the Council should be to work on a solution for the tragedy in Syria. I cannot imagine EU leaders going back to their national capitals without taking concrete action on Aleppo. It's not sufficient to agree 25 million in humanitarian aid, because we know that Assad will never allow this to reach the people of Aleppo.

“The European Council must also take action to finally fix the cracks in our financial foundations. We have never recovered from the 2008 financial crash and if we are to clean up the financial mess in Europe, we need to put in place a full-fledged banking union and recapitalize our banks.

“Instead of being dependent on a loose stability pact that is never applied, we should also work on a new system of economic governance. It’s a fundamental mistake to think we can solve our financial crisis without structural changes; it is high time the European Council implements the five president's report.”

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