On Thursday, new Brexit secretary Dominic Raab is due to present Prime Minister Theresa's so-called white paper, a document which sets out the government's plan on Brexit.
Raab said in the foreword to the paper, entitled The Future Relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, that "it is a vision that respects the result of the referendum [vote to leave] and delivers a principled and practical Brexit."
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"Leaving the European Union involves challenge and opportunity. We need to rise to the challenge and grasp the opportunities," he pointed out, touting the white paper as a document that outlines "a comprehensive vision for the future [UK-EU] relationship."
According to Raab, the white paper will focus on an array of pressing issues and help to
- take Britain out of the single market and the customs union
- give the UK the flexibility to clinch new trade deals across the globe, specifically "breaking new ground for agreements in services"
- ensure "frictionless" UK-EU trade in goods through a new free trade area to meet business interests
- deliver on London and Brussels' commitments to Northern Ireland and Ireland and avert a hard border "without compromising the EU's autonomy or the UK's sovereignty"
- develop an "unprecedented" economic partnership and "unrivalled" security cooperation
- strengthen "unparalleled partnership on cross-cutting issues like data and science and innovation"
European Commission Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier, for his part, described Brexit as an element of stability for the European continent.
He declined to comment on the recent changes in the British government, calling the matter an internal issue of the United Kingdom and stressing that the reshuffle will not affect EU-UK negotiations on Brexit.
