The interpretation of the newspaper ‘The Guardian’ was denied by the chief negotiator for Brexit of the European Commission Michel Barnier personally via Twitter:
Barnier tweeted: “When asked on equivalence I said: EU would need special vigilance on financial stability risk, not special deal to access the City.”
Additionally the EU spokesman said the Guardian report did “not correctly reflect” Barnier’s comments to an in camera meeting with members of the European Parliament last week.
The EU officials offered their view, explaining that Barnier was making a point when asked about Brussels’ willingness after Brexit to recognize British financial regulations as “equivalent” in rigor to those of the EU was that, as a lot of EU business was likely to still pass through the City, EU equivalence rules would have to be much more tightly drafted compared to those for smaller centers.
On 27 July 2016 Michel Barnier was appointed as the European Commission’s chief negotiator with the United Kingdom over leaving the European Union under Article 50.
(Sources: Twitter, EC, Guardian, Reuters)
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