So we have a weighty new @OpenEurope report on UK-EU relations today (110 pages) which is being touted as a realistic compromise option. Let's see... 1/
openeurope.org.uk/intelligence/b…
openeurope.org.uk/intelligence/b…
The headline summary is that the UK remains 'close' to single market goods regulations, but not services regulations. The report purposely does not cover agriculture, and proposes we leave the customs union. Thus we still have an Ireland problem 2/
And in fact we also have a regulation problem, as the close alignment is not membership of the single market but a seemingly voluntary arrangement of 'managed alignment' which sounds nice but is going to have problems... 3/ 
On first read I'm not completely sure how different the goods proposal is from the services proposal anyway - and what precisely is proposed for services 4/
And this para would seem to decide the matter - in fact it's all voluntary, in which case this doesn't seem too much of a compromise, more just a fleshing out of how a future relationship might look if the EU had no views on the matter 5/
It might be ok with the EU, as the report does not appear to want the UK to have a say in any EU rule making, only to decide if we're going to agree or not. But then it's still just an FTA with a few whistles 6/
It means we're open to FTAs with other countries - though to note Norway considers following single market regulations to be incompatible with a US trade deal - so which is it to be? 7/
A final substantive point - those who see TTIP regulatory cooperation as a great outcome might want to bear in mind the very different circumstances. I was heavily involved, and will write more about it soon. But unlikely to be the panacea. 8/
Conclusion. Sadly this @OpenEurope report isn't a great step forward to finding a compromise UK-EU way forward, indeed the report as a whole lacks any detailed insight into the issues it covers 9/ ends
