HOT TOPIC
Talking Brexit
How will the UK’s exit from the European Union affect global mobility and multinational companies needing to move talent across borders? David Sapsted reports.
T
he Brexit vote in June’s referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU) produced only one absolute certainty: that there could be absolutely no certainty
about the future shape of the relationship between Britain and the remaining 27 members of the bloc. Of course, the seemingly insoluble conundrum in the Brexit
negotiations will be how the UK can continue to enjoy (relatively) unfettered trade access to the EU’s single market, particularly for its all-important services sector, while imposing restrictions on the free movement of people. These curbs are regarded by Prime Minister Theresa May as a ‘line in the sand’ and by most of her European counterparts as totally beyond the pale. Even if a compromise can be reached on this impasse in
negotiations, which are due to start early in 2017 when the UK triggers the two-year negotiation process for its exit from the EU, the task facing both sides is mammoth.
Forging new partnerships For the British, quite apart from trying to hammer out a new relationship with Europe, it will require repealing or amending swathes of EU regulation to reduce the burden of red tape so loathed by many businesses, while trying simultaneously to establish new trading partnerships with the likes of the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, India and China.
For the rest of Europe, their own task of trying to hammer out
a new relationship with Britain is complicated by the fact that, on one side, the UK is a crucial market for goods from so many of them – not least, Germany – while, on the other, the fear persists that reaching too generous an agreement could bolster growing ‘leave’ movements in several western European nations. And there is the problem of what happens to the right to remain
of the estimated 3.3 million EU citizens, including 2.1 million actively engaged in work, currently in the UK, and about 1.3 million Britons estimated by the United Nations to be living in other EU countries, around 800,000 of whom are deemed to be workers or their dependants. Mrs May’s discussions with other European leaders have so far
produced little in the way of concrete proposals, although a possible compromise has been floated that would enable the UK to ban the free movement of people while allowing the free movement of labour; that is, allowing EU citizens, but not necessarily their dependants, virtually free access to the UK as long as they have a firm job offer. Continued access to the pool of European skills – including those
required by industries such as agriculture and hospitality – is a priority for many UK companies. Josh Hardie, deputy director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), says, “British businesses recognise public concern over immigration. But to thrive and grow, they also need to be able to access talent from across the world.
6 | Re:locate | Autumn 2016
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