The European Movement UK has responded to the announcement that ‘sufficient progress’ has been made to enable a move to the next stage of Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU.

Michael Young, CEO of the European Movement UK, said: 

“The European Movement UK is pleased that an agreement has been reached which has at its centre the goal of avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland and thereby helping to safeguard peace into the future. The European Movement UK believes that if the UK government had committed to anything short of reinforcing this objective, it would have been wholly unacceptable. We are opposed to Brexit, which opened up discussion about creating a new hard border, and we believe that remaining in the European Union, in the customs union and in the single market is in the best interests of the UK.

“Now that the next stage of trade negotiations is due to get underway, and as the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill makes its way through Parliament, the European Movement UK’s campaign against Brexit is gathering momentum. We want to keep the UK as close to its European partners and neighbours as possible, and the best way of achieving this is to stay in the EU; to safeguard all the benefits of our EU membership; and to make a stand against the negative impacts of Brexit which we are already witnessing.    

“It is the citizens across all parts of the UK which this agreement affects whose opinions ultimately matter and we should be given a chance to voice them once the details of the arrangements have been clearly set out.”