Philippe Lamberts, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – Mr President, a fortnight ago, the Heads of State and Government of the European Union met informally in Salzburg. First, they carefully ignored this Parliament’s call to open an Article 7 procedure on Hungary, and then they focused on what they believe is their main topic, migration, as if this were the existential topic that our union is facing. Once again, they failed to reach any substantial agreement. I have only one thing to say about this: a year ago, the vast majority of this Parliament had the strength and the audacity to go beyond Dublin and to agree on how our union, by acting together, can fulfil its humanitarian duty in a responsible and effective way. The European Council would be well advised to follow in our footsteps.

However, one thing on which the EU 27 did agree, was their stance on the Brexit negotiation. I shall readily agree that some statements made after Salzburg were unnecessarily blunt, but they came nowhere close to what we heard from the British Foreign Secretary, who took over the now commonplace rhetoric of the far right, comparing the European Union with the Soviet Union. Let him be reminded that the United Kingdom decided freely to join the European Union. It also decided freely to hold a referendum on its membership in which the citizens voted freely. A majority chose to leave, and we respect that decision.

However, to those – especially in the United Kingdom – who blame the EU27 for lack of flexibility, I will say this: we cannot be held responsible for resolving intractable contradictions in the British position. Indeed, it is this Government’s choice to interpret the referendum as a decision to leave both the single market and the customs union. It is also its choice to refuse any form of special status for Northern Ireland, and it was its free choice to be party to the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Ireland. These three constraints are incompatible with one another, and resolving this British contradiction can in no way justify the dilution of the single market, one of the Union’s key pillars.

To both leavers and remainers, I will say that it is in no—one’s best interest to have the United Kingdom crash out of the European Union. This would imperil peace in Ireland, it would jeopardise the prosperity of too many of our fellow citizens, and it would poison the relationship between the two sides for the foreseeable future. We should now focus on the only thing that matters, namely finding, in the next few weeks, an agreement on the terms of the withdrawal. This will then provide both sides with the time needed to build our future relationship and, in our view, no relationship between the UK and the EU surpasses EU membership. Who knows, there may come a day in the near, or distant, future when the majority of British citizens will assert that the only way for Britain to be global is to be part of the European Union. Our door will remain open to you. You will always be welcome where the United Kingdom really belongs.

(Applause)