European leaders and industry chiefs welcomed the clarity brought by Theresa May’s Brexit speech, but said the course she had chosen would hurt Britain more than the remaining EU member states.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, summed up the bloc’s official reaction in a tweet: “Sad process, surrealistic times, but at least more realistic announcement on Brexit. EU27 united and ready to negotiate after article 50.”

Less officially, Volker Treier, of the German chamber of industry and commerce, made it clear that Britain’s departure from the single market and customs union would do substantial damage to business ties between the UK and Germany.

“Without a doubt a hard Brexit limits chances of growth on both sides of the Channel. But for Britain the economic damage is likely to be greater,” Treier said, adding that the UK had chosen to “lower its economic attractiveness”.

Many on the continent were also sceptical about the prime minister’s ability to follow through on her promise for the UK to be “a great, global trading nation”. The French centre-right MEP Alain Lamassoure said Britain had chosen to sink itself.

He said: “It’s clear the interest for the British is 500 million customers in Europe, not just 65 million in Britain. When May comes to negotiating with a country like China, she can only offer 65 million British customers. It’s a kind of economic and business suicide.”

An Italian government official said he doubted the UK could be as strong outside the EU as it was within it. “Good luck on being a ‘global Britain’,” he said.



Guy Verhofstadt, the chief Brexit negotiator for the European parliament, accused May of pursuing tactics that would “hurt British people”.

Threatening to turn the UK into a deregulated tax heaven will not only hurt British people—it is a counterproductive negotiating tactic — Guy Verhofstadt (@GuyVerhofstadt) January 17, 2017

May must take the concerns of the 48% on board. The current lack of clarity for UK citizens in the UK & vice versa is disrupting many lives — Guy Verhofstadt (@GuyVerhofstadt) January 17, 2017

In her speech May said she did not believe Europe would harm “German exporters, French farmers and Spanish fishermen” in an attempt to hit Britain with a punitive deal.

In Spain, however, Javier Garat, the president of Europêche, which represents 80,000 fisheries workers across the EU, said a mutually agreeable deal was the preferred option, but British workers stood to lose far more than their continental rivals if things turned ugly.

“When it comes to exports, 68% of all the UK’s fish products are exported to the EU, much of that to Spain,” he said. “If anyone’s going to lose out in the market it would be the UK, not Spain.”

Thomas Prouza, the Czech Europe minister, said on Twitter May’s wishlist looked “a bit ambitious”, adding: “Trade as free as possible, full control on immigration … where is the give for all the take?”

Speaking to the Guardian, he criticised her address as a “domestic policy speech” that declared “what Britain could take from the table” without explaining what it would bring in return.

“On the one hand, she wants to be part of the customs union but at the same time she will want the UK to have its own trade policies towards other countries,” he said. “That’s one thing that is going to be hard to square. She has also not spelled out in sufficient detail how she wants to address the rights of all those citizens currently living in the UK and what agreement could be struck to guarantee the British citizens living in EU countries.

“I expected more details about the status of people living and working in Britain and currently paying taxes. Still very fresh in our memory is the proposal ... a few months ago about British companies publishing lists of foreigners they employ. People are worried not only about physical attacks but about the threats to their jobs. This current atmosphere is really damaging.”

Several commentators and organisations said their – and the EU’s – top priority must now be to protect the single market. “The EU has to show a united front,” said Dieter Kempf, the president of the federation of German industry (BDI).

“There can only be one motto for politics in Brussels and Berlin during the Brexit negotiations, to keep together and strengthen Europe. The four basic freedoms are immovable. There must not be borders for goods, services, capital and workers.”

EU institutions have resolutely refused to negotiate until the UK government triggers article 50. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, who had been briefed on the speech, was due to speak to May later on Tuesday.

EU ministers were generally diplomatic and positive. Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, welcomed “a bit more clarity” and the fact Britain was seeking “a constructive partnership, a friendship, with a strong EU. That is good.”

Sandro Gozi, Italy’s undersecretary for European affairs, was also pleased that May had at last confirmed what many had long suspected. “It is now finally clear what they want. They want to leave for good and they want a full Brexit.”

Gozi told BBC’s Newsnight on Tuesday night: “What I found rather odd about Theresa May’s speech is that she says that the UK shouldn’t be half in half out, after all the UK has always been half in half out in the European Union. We have given to Brits so many exceptions since you joined the economic community in 1973.”

Poland’s minister for European affairs, Konrad Szymański, welcomed May’s indication that securing a deal on the rights of EU citizens in Britain – and British citizens in the EU – was “the right and fair thing to do”.

He also told May that Poland would insist that any plans to control immigration to the UK “must be proportionate and ensure fair treatment of all EU citizens, regardless of their professional profiles”.

The Irish government welcomed May’s commitment to maintaining the pre-EU common travel area between Britain and Ireland, and her promise that there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Several politicians and commentators on the continent were critical of aspects of the speech, particularly the perceived threat to turn Britain into a tax haven if it were to be shut off from the single market.



Philippe Lamberts, the co-chair of the Greens-European Free Alliance group in the European parliament, described the speech as a slap in the face for anyone who hoped a future UK-EU relationship would be about more than just economic cooperation.

The French liberal MEP Sylvie Goulard welcomed May’s generally friendlier rhetoric toward Europe, but said the prime minister’s threat to turn Britain into a low-tax island amounted to blackmail.

She pointed out that May’s speech also contained no direct reference to the €60bn (£51bn) Brexit bill being prepared by the EU Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier. “This is her version of what a good deal would look like, and there is still a lot of work to do,” Goulard said.

“Blackmailing partners is never a good thing,” she added, saying that the whole issue of tax was “very worrying. As far as I know, the UK is a member of the OECD and is committed … not to encourage tax avoidance.”

The implied threat led one diplomat present at Lancaster House to say: “If you are willing to sell your soul, make sure that you have something to sell.”

Another said the framework of the speech was a “bit of a strange mixed bag”. “The prime minister said she shared our values, but then there was a not very implied threat to be a tax haven, trying to drive down conditions across Europe,” they said.

Jean-Claude Piris, a former head of the European council’s legal service, said the speech contained no big surprises except the proposal for “a bizarre customs union” with the EU, which he said would not be allowed under the World Trade Organisation’s GATT accord.



“Otherwise she is asking for the moon, which is normal at the start of negotiations,” Piris said. May said in her speech she wanted a completely new customs agreement but had an open mind about how to work this out.

Other commentators, such as the former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, saw the speech simply as a retreat from Europe. He said on Twitter that Britain seemed to be seeking something slightly less than Ukraine’s free trade agreement with the EU.

“I regret the approach the UK government has taken,” he said. “I think most of the EU would have preferred a closer relationship with the UK.”

Additional reporting by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome, Sam Jones in Madrid, Jennifer Rankin in Brussels, Patrick Wintour in London, Christian Davies in Warsaw and Henry McDonald in Dublin