Barnier says UK could rejoin EU without euro or Schengen

Michel Barnier, the European Union's former chief Brexit negotiator, said on November 5, 2026 that Britain should be able to rejoin the bloc without adopting the euro or joining the Schengen passport-free travel zone. He spoke at POLITICO's European Pulse Seminar in his current role as a French lawmaker.

"The door is open," Barnier said, adding that if the British sovereignly choose closer ties with the EU, he does not believe membership of the euro or Schengen can be made mandatory for them. POLITICO reported last month that Brussels would be flexible on letting Britain stay out of both if it ever applied to rejoin.

Barnier said there can be no cherry-picking when it comes to joining the single market, a line he often used during the Brexit negotiations. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants to eventually see the UK rejoin the EU and has suggested the proposal could make it into Labour's next election manifesto, with options ranging from single market or customs union membership to rejoining wholesale.

Barnier also addressed next year's French presidential election. He called the current atmosphere in French politics pre-insurrectionary and said he regrets that Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, two candidates who want to fundamentally reshape the EU, are leading in the polls. Though Le Pen has dropped previous calls for France to leave the EU, Barnier said her public comments point clearly toward the end of the European project as it has been built over the past 40 years.

He insisted Le Pen should not be compared to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whom he described as pragmatic and pro-business, despite ideological proximity between the two nationalists on some points. Barnier added that Le Pen's platform in some respects is not very different from the economic platform of Mélenchon, who is on the far left. Jon Stone contributed to reporting.