Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images Michel Barnier: UK cut out of EU defense decisions post Brexit The EU’s chief negotiator also said that the UK would no longer retain membership of the cross-border law enforcement agency Europol.

LONDON — The U.K. will lose all decision-making powers in EU foreign policy and defense issues after Brexit and cannot remain a member of the cross-border law enforcement agency Europol, Michel Barnier said Wednesday.

Speaking at a Berlin Security Conference, the EU’s chief negotiator shot down suggestions by some in the U.K. foreign policy establishment that the country could continue to participate in the EU’s powerful ambassador-level political and security committee (PSC). Barnier said there must be no U.K. ambassador sitting on the PSC and that the U.K. defense secretary would no longer take part in EU defense minister meetings.

The U.K. will also be unable to take command of EU-led operations or lead EU battlegroups, he said, nor could it be a member of the European Defense Agency or Europol.

Each outcome was “the logical consequence of the sovereign choice made by the British,” Barnier said.

The U.K. has said it wants a close, continued partnership with the EU on defense and security after Brexit, and ministers view the country’s military strength and security and intelligence expertise as one of the country’s strongest hands in the Brexit negotiation. Prime Minister Theresa May has made repeated commitments to continued U.K. support for European security.

In a position paper published in September, London did not explicitly back calls, made by former Foreign Secretary William Hague among others, for the U.K. to retain participation in the PSC, but did call for the U.K. and the EU to have “regular close consultations on foreign and security policy issues, with the option to agree joint positions on foreign policy issues.”

A separate position paper on security issues called for a closer relationship with the EU than any other third country, and did not rule out continued membership of Europol to facilitate this.

However, London and Brussels are agreed that the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU will not affect any Europe-wide cooperation under the aegis of NATO, or the U.K.’s bilateral cooperation with EU member countries. The U.K. would continue to take part in NATO’s military operations in Estonia and Poland aimed at bolstering Europe's defenses against Russian aggression, Barnier said.

He added that a future defense and foreign policy partnership with the U.K., while not granting the latter decision-making powers, should “enable” the U.K.’s “voluntary partnership” in EU missions and operations, participation in joint armaments programs, and exchanges between EU and U.K. intelligence services.

Echoing the words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel last spring, Barnier said that Europe, in the face of Brexit and Donald Trump’s “strategic repositioning” of the U.S., needed to “take our fate into our own hands.”

“Who can say for certain that Europe will still be a haven of stability in 10 or 20 years?” he said. “It is for us, Europeans, to maintain this stability and to promote our values around the world. Nobody is going to do it for us. And to me, it seems obvious that we will be stronger if we cooperate to meet these challenges.”