Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 28 March 2017.
Well, it’s possible to do it via, for example, remaining in the European Economic Area. The UK Government have indicated that they don’t want the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and that they don’t want to pay into a budget pot, but if you want to be a member of a club, you have to pay a membership fee, if I can put it that way. I can’t see there being any other model. I don’t think the UK will be offered a model that is unique to the UK. Why would the European Union want to do that? So, my urging on the UK Government has been not to think of a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit but a sensible Brexit. I just don’t believe that there is a majority of people in this country who want to see a Brexit that is so hard that tariffs will be imposed, that there will be unnecessary restrictions in terms of movement in and out of the UK, and that there will be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic. Yes, there was a vote last year and people want to leave. What we don’t know is what they believe the terms would be. That’s the difficulty. But to my mind, it’s perfectly possible to leave the EU and yet still have full and unfettered access to the single market.