FRANKFURT: Britain cannot be allowed access to the EU’s single market without accepting free movement of people, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, warning she would not allow a free-for-all.

“If we don’t say full access to the internal market is linked to full freedom of movement, then a movement will spread in Europe where everyone just does whatever they want,” the chancellor told business leaders from the BDI industry federation.

Merkel urged German firms to back Berlin’s tough line on Brexit even in the face of potential economic harm, or risk undermining the European Union.

“We have to make our interests align so that European industry federations don’t put pressure on us” during talks with London, Merkel told the annual BDI gathering.

Some British politicians are confident that industry groups on the continent, fearful of losing their access to the UK, will push for a deal retaining Britain’s access to the EU single market while limiting migration across the Channel.

The chancellor acknowledged the trade-offs to be made would be “judged differently from one industrial sector to the next”, but insisted that protecting the EU’s four freedoms — of goods, capital, people, and services — was good for industry.

Merkel’s comments come just days after British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would trigger by March 2017 the two-year talks to quit the European Union.

May’s Conservative party announced a slew of policies aimed at reducing migration to the island nation at its conference this week.

Britons voted on June 23 to quit the EU, after a campaign in which “Leave” voices said the only way to limit immigration was to abandon membership of the bloc.

German EconMin says EU should try to keep Britain as close as possible

BERLIN: German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday that the European Union should try to keep Britain as close as possible in negotiations on their future relationship following the Brexit vote, while safeguarding the bloc’s interests.

Speaking at an industry event in Berlin, Gabriel said it was important to make clear that full access to the bloc’s single market was ultimately linked to accepting freedom of movement.

“But this should not prevent us from trying to do everything to keep the Britons as close as possible to Europe. This must be our goal,” Gabriel said.

“We must try to formulate offers in a way so that the Britons remain close to us, also to have the chance that they return some day,” he added.

His comments marked a more cautions tone after Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed at the same event that the EU must stand firm by its position that access to the single market is linked to freedom of movement in negotiations with Britain.

-Reuters