Related: Theresa May’s European mission impossibleHigh-ranking UK officials said that while it was “very early days”, some form of extended emergency brake was “certainly one of the ideas now on the table”. This would allow Norway to impose restrictions on free movement but it has never invoked the clause, because, diplomats say, it is wary of reprisals from EU member states. “If the rights of EU citizens now living the UK can be guaranteed permanently by the UK government, then I think we can look at some form of emergency brake on free movement of labour,” he said. The UK would be able to apply the “brake” for an initial seven years. This was how long temporary derogations lasted after the 2004 enlargement, which the UK chose not to benefit from,” she said.

Source: The Guardian July 23, 2016 23:18 UTC