伦敦-英国政府周日否认了一份报告，该报告称，英国正寻求与欧盟建立“瑞士式”关系，消除英国退出欧盟方面设置的许多经济壁垒——尽管在多年的唇枪舌剑之后，英国政府正试图改善与欧盟的关系。
卫生大臣史蒂夫·巴克利告诉天空新闻“我不承认”星期日泰晤士报的报道，坚称英国仍然决心“利用我们拥有的英国退出欧盟自由”，在关键领域偏离欧盟的规则。
瑞士与拥有27个成员国的欧盟有着密切的经济关系，作为回报，瑞士接受了欧盟的规则，并向欧盟缴纳了资金。
英国政府表示，“英国退出欧盟意味着我们永远不会再接受与欧洲的关系，这种关系将恢复行动自由，向欧盟支付不必要的款项，或者危及我们现在能够在世界各地达成的贸易协议的全部利益。”
但尽管否认，由首相Rishi Sunak领导的新保守党政府希望恢复与欧盟的关系，承认英国退出欧盟给英国带来了经济成本。财政部长杰里米·亨特(Jeremy Hunt)上周对英国和欧盟之间的贸易壁垒将在未来几年内消除表示乐观。
自英国选民在2016年的公投中以52%比48%的比例选择离开欧盟以来，公众对历届保守党政府所追求的英国退出欧盟强硬形式的反对越来越多。
现在，根据民调专家约翰·柯蒂斯的说法，57%的人会投票重新加入欧盟，43%的人会留在欧盟之外。
当英国正在谈判脱离欧盟时，首相特里萨·梅(Theresa May)和她的继任者鲍里斯·约翰逊(Boris Johnson)领导下的保守党政府排除了留在欧盟无国界单一市场或其免关税关税关税同盟的可能性。想要更紧密联系的政治家们被忽视或者被推到一边。
双方在2020年达成的离婚协议给货物带来了海关检查和其他边境障碍，给旅行者带来了护照检查和其他烦恼。英国人再也不能在欧洲自由生活和工作，欧盟公民也不能随意移居英国。
英国政府的财政监管机构预算责任办公室(Office for Budget Responsibility)上周表示，离开欧盟“对英国贸易产生了重大不利影响”。
然而，直到最近，政府成员才开始承认英国退出欧盟的不利之处。亨特上周宣布了一项550亿英镑(650亿美元)的增税和减支一揽子计划，以支撑受通胀飙升打击的经济，他承认英国退出欧盟对英国的近邻造成了“贸易壁垒”。
“与邻国的自由贸易非常有利于增长，”他告诉BBC，并预测“绝大多数”壁垒将被消除——尽管这需要数年时间。
任何重建与欧盟关系的举措都将面临保守党内强大的欧洲怀疑派的反对。即使是反对党工党——不愿意重开一场将国家一分为二并毒害政治的辩论——也表示，如果它在下次选举后掌权，它不会寻求重新加入欧盟，甚至欧盟单一市场。
上个月上任的Sunak是英国退出欧盟的长期支持者，但也是一个务实主义者，他将修复经济作为自己的首要任务。俄罗斯入侵乌克兰，动摇了欧洲安全，并导致能源价格飙升，这让英吉利海峡两岸的政界人士开始关注英国退出欧盟争端。
Sunak希望解决与欧盟在贸易规则上不断恶化的宿怨，这些规则导致了北爱尔兰的政治危机，北爱尔兰是英国唯一与欧盟成员国接壤的地区。当英国离开欧盟时，双方同意保持爱尔兰边境免于海关和其他检查，因为开放的边境是结束北爱尔兰30年暴力的和平进程的关键支柱。
相反，对从英国其他地方进入北爱尔兰的一些商品进行检查。这激怒了亲英国的统一派政治家，他们说新的检查削弱了北爱尔兰在英国的地位。他们抵制贝尔法斯特的权力分享政府，让北爱尔兰没有一个正常运转的政府。
英国政府寄希望于与欧盟达成一项协议，放松检查，并诱使北爱尔兰的统一主义者重返政府。
约翰逊在任时几个月的谈判被证明是没有结果的，但自从苏纳克接管以来，气氛有所改善，尽管迄今为止还没有突破。———
As British voters cool on Brexit, UK softens tone towards EU
LONDON --The British government on Sunday denied a report that it is seeking a “Swiss-style” relationship with the European Union that would remove many of the economic barriers erected by Brexit — even as it tries to improve ties with the bloc after years of acrimony.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay told Sky News “I don’t recognize” the Sunday Times report, insisting the U.K. was still determined to “use the Brexit freedoms we have” by diverging from the EU’s rules in key areas.
Switzerland has a close economic relationship with the 27-nation EU in return for accepting the bloc’s rules and paying into its coffers.
The U.K. government said “Brexit means we will never again have to accept a relationship with Europe that would see a return to freedom of movement, unnecessary payments to the European Union or jeopardize the full benefit of trade deals we are now able to strike around the world.”
But despite the denials, the new Conservative government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to restore relations with the EU, acknowledging that Brexit has brought an economic cost for Britain. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt last week expressed optimism that trade barriers between the U.K. and the EU would be removed in the coming years.
The shift comes as public opposition grows to the hard form of Brexit pursued by successive Conservative governments since British voters opted by a 52%-48% margin to leave the bloc in a 2016 referendum.
Now, according to polling expert John Curtice, 57% of people would vote to rejoin the bloc and 43% to stay out.
When the U.K. was negotiating its divorce from the EU, Conservative governments under Prime Ministers Theresa May and her successor Boris Johnson ruled out remaining inside the EU’s borderless single market or its tariff-free customs union. Politicians who wanted closer ties were ignored or pushed aside.
The divorce deal struck by the two sides in 2020 has brought customs checks and other border hurdles for goods, and passport checks and other annoyances for travelers. Britons can no longer live and work freely across Europe, and EU citizens can’t move to the U.K. at will.
The British government’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, said last week that leaving the EU has had “a significant adverse effect on U.K. trade.”
Yet only recently have members of the government begun acknowledging Brexit’s downsides. Hunt, who last week announced a 55 billion-pound ($65 billion) package of tax increases and spending cuts to shore up an economy battered by soaring inflation, acknowledged Brexit had caused “trade barriers” with the U.K.’s nearest neighbors.
“Unfettered trade with our neighbors is very beneficial to growth,” he told the BBC, and predicted that the “vast majority” of barriers would be removed – although it would take years.
Any move to rebuild ties with the EU will face opposition from the powerful euroskeptic wing of the Conservative Party. Even the opposition Labour Party — reluctant to reopen a debate that split the country in half and poisoned politics — says it won’t seek to rejoin the bloc, or even the EU's single market, if it takes power after the next election.
Sunak, who took office last month, is a long-time Brexit supporter, but also a pragmatist who has made repairing the economy his top priority. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has rocked European security and sent energy prices soaring, has put Brexit squabbles into perspective for politicians on both sides of the English Channel.
Sunak wants to solve a festering feud with the EU over trade rules that have caused a political crisis in Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU member nation. When Britain left the bloc, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
Instead, there are checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. That angered pro-British unionist politicians, who say the new checks undermine Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. They are boycotting Belfast's power-sharing government, leaving Northern Ireland without a functioning administration.
The U.K. government is pinning its hopes on striking a deal with the EU that would ease the checks and coax Northern Ireland's unionists back into the government.
Months of talks when Johnson was in office proved fruitless, but the mood has improved since Sunak took over, though as yet there has been no breakthrough. ———
