FUTURE RELATIONSHIP

As for the details of the future relationship between EU and Britain, local media is currently focusing on two types of future relations: one modeled after the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and another after the European Economic Area (EEA).

A CETA-type trade deal would fall short of what Britain is looking for, mainly because it offers relatively limited access in services, with no passport rights for financial services -- an important sector for Britain.

On the other hand, an EEA-type agreement would give Britain much of what it is looking for in trade, including passporting rights for financial services. However, the EU insists that access to its single market, which EEA countries enjoy, must mean not only free movement of goods, services and capital, but also of labor -- a demand that Britain is not willing to accept.

In other words, Britain is looking for a "CETA-plus" (i.e. plus services, including financial services) or an "EEA-minus" (i.e. minus free movement of labor).