{"id":1139930,"date":"2026-08-09T16:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1139930\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T16:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T16:04:17","slug":"uk-offered-eu-single-market-return-in-exchange-for-nuclear-shield-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1139930\/","title":{"rendered":"UK offered EU single market return in exchange for nuclear shield plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Alimat Aliyeva<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been presented with a<br \/>\nproposal to extend the UK\u2019s nuclear deterrent across Europe in<br \/>\nexchange for Britain rejoining the EU Single Market for goods, The<br \/>\nTelegraph reported on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal was put forward by former Conservative MP Nick<br \/>\nBoles, who has called for the creation of a \u201cEuropean<br \/>\nConfederation\u201d linking the EU\u2019s free trade arrangements with NATO\u2019s<br \/>\ndefence commitments, according to Anadolu.<\/p>\n<p>Under the plan, Britain would commit to spending 3.5% of its<br \/>\ngross domestic product on defence and extend its nuclear umbrella<br \/>\nto European countries not currently covered by the UK\u2019s Trident<br \/>\nnuclear deterrent.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine, Switzerland, Norway and countries in the Western<br \/>\nBalkans would also be invited to participate in the proposed<br \/>\nframework, according to The Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>In return, Britain would be offered access to the EU Single<br \/>\nMarket for goods without being required to accept freedom of<br \/>\nmovement or join the eurozone.<\/p>\n<p>Boles argued that Europe needed a new approach to security<br \/>\ncooperation amid uncertainty over the future of US commitments to<br \/>\nEuropean defence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we&#8217;re trying to do a bilateral negotiation in which we try<br \/>\nto persuade the EU to have us have access to the single market for<br \/>\ngoods, we will fail,\u201d Boles told The Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>He said a broader proposal addressing European security<br \/>\nconcerns, including the war in Ukraine, could make a UK-EU<br \/>\nagreement more attractive to Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can explain this isn&#8217;t just a selfish British deal, it&#8217;s a<br \/>\ndeal you can use to solve other problems yourselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal comes after The Telegraph reported that former<br \/>\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer had approached the EU over granting<br \/>\nBritain access to the Single Market for goods.<\/p>\n<p>According to the newspaper, Brussels rejected the proposal,<br \/>\narguing that the bloc was unwilling to offer Britain special<br \/>\ntreatment while the UK remained outside the EU.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, a UK government source told The Telegraph that<br \/>\nofficials were developing proposals aimed at deepening cooperation<br \/>\nbetween Britain and the EU.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals are expected to be discussed later this year,<br \/>\naccording to the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Alimat Aliyeva British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been presented with a proposal to extend the UK\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1139931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[12619,7503,12622,7502,1500,3085,12621,1700,2000,299,5187,1699,12620,5387,285,12618,461,263],"class_list":["post-1139930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-analytics","tag-azerbaijan","tag-azernews","tag-baku","tag-breaking-news","tag-business-news","tag-company-news","tag-economy","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-financial-news","tag-oil-and-gas-news","tag-politics","tag-socar","tag-turkey","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1139931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}