Euro 'no obligation', Barnier says

Michel Barnier, who led the EU's side of the Brexit negotiations, says the UK rejoin EU question does not have to start with the euro. In his words, it is "perfectly possible to begin such a negotiation [on rejoining the EU] without any kind of obligation to take part in the euro".

He added that it would be "possible to negotiate a new relationship without this obligation", though he caveated the point: all new EU member states are legally required to join the euro area eventually. In practice, six of the 27 current members do not use it, and one of them, Denmark, has a formal opt-out.

No cherry-picking on the single market

The euro, in Barnier's telling, is a talking point at the start of any re-entry process. Free movement and the single market are not. "There is no negotiation possible. No possible negotiation on any kind of cherry-picking or the single market 'a la carte'.", he said.

He argued the terms are already well understood in London: "The UK knows quite perfectly the condition to be part of and to rejoin the single market and the customs union."

Farage's euro claim answered

Barnier's intervention responds directly to a recent claim by Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, that if the UK were to reapply to join the EU it would have to sign up to the euro. Barnier's answer, in the same interview, is that no such obligation need attach at the start of negotiations.

The comments were made in Barnier's interview with Cathy Newman for Sky News. His stated position, taken together, leaves euro membership negotiable at the outset and free movement, the single market and the customs union firmly outside the bargaining zone.