MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem criticized UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s statement regarding UK plans to keep trading freely with European countries after leaving the EU Customs Union on Wednesday, saying it was "impossible."
"He’s saying things that are intellectually impossible, politically unavailable, so I think he’s not offering the British people a fair view of what is available and what can be achieved in these negotiations," Dijsselbloem told the BBC’s Newsnight program.
He added that Britain would lose its free access to European internal market, calling it a "step back."
"The UK will be outside the internal market and there will be some hindrances," Dijsselbloem said.
According to the Dutch finance minister, both the UK and the EU economies will be in a worse situation after Brexit.
"There is no win-win situation. It's going to be a lose-lose situation and in the best case if we set aside all emotions and try to reach an agreement that is least damaging to both of us we can minimise the damages," he added.
On June 23, the United Kingdom held a referendum, as a result of which the country decided to leave the 28-nation bloc. According to the final results, some 52 percent of voters supported Brexit. Following the referendum, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that she intended to trigger Article 50 on exiting the European Union by the end of March 2017.
