The EU has learnt nothing from Brexit

This is Brexit all over again. The Swiss government pulled the plug on its seven-year negotiation of the EU-Swiss institutional framework agreement on Wednesday. Its failure was driven by familiar issues: freedom of movement and dynamic alignment. Just one year ago, the EU’s Brexit negotiators still insisted on dynamic alignment — the idea that Britain would have to follow new EU rules even after it left the bloc. It was only the credible threat of the Johnson administration walking out of negotiations that ended this anti-democratic monstrosity. Every country, the EU included, has the right to restrict market access. But nobody has the right to impose their own legislation dynamically on third countries. This cannot be excused by the idea that, as the larger body in almost any negotiation, the EU has economic might on its side.

Freedom of movement clearly played a role as it did during Brexit. It is intricately interwoven with full membership of the single market and of the EU itself.