During a recent speech in Sofia, Michel Barnier said that the EU is “ready to handle the costs” caused by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. On the subject of financial services, the EU negotiator said that the EU does not need the City of London stating “Some argue that the EU desperately needs the City of London, and that access to financing for EU27 business would be hampered – and economic growth undermined – without giving UK operators the same market access as today. This is not what we hear from market participants, and it is not the analysis that we have made ourselves.”

In an apparent rebuff to the UK Prime Minister’s please for a special deal for the UK’s financial services sector, Mr Barnier said “I can perfectly see the UK’s logic and interest in pleading for a system of “mutual recognition” and “reciprocal regulatory equivalence”. This is, indeed, what the Single Market achieves! “Everything must change so that everything can stay the same”, to paraphrase Lampedusa. But this will not work.”