The EU’s state aid hypocrisy

Another crucial period has begun in the Brexit saga. Boris Johnson has ruled out extending the transition stage beyond 1 January, after which the UK will no longer automatically take over EU regulations or align with EU trade policy. So the key question surrounding Brexit will finally need to be answered: what are the conditions for the UK to retain a decent amount of market access to the EU?

The answer the EU has given is that the UK must abstain from unfairly subsidising its companies. That is a fair demand, but the EU also wants the UK to continue to align with EU rules on state aid. The latter is something fiercely resisted by the British, and rightly so. The stakes are high – along with fisheries, it’s seen as the key sticking point in the negotiations. FT columnist Wolfgang Munchau thinks that ‘it is whether [the] EU accepts [an] independent UK state aid policy.