No, the EU is not going to put up barriers to data exchange with the UK, or block City access to the EU. Brexit does both those things automatically. thetimes.co.uk/article/brusse…
Brexit destroys the legal framework that made such things possible in the first place. The UK, not the EU, is responsible for this and it is irritating to see the EU being accused of threatening to do things that Brexit does automatically.
Of course, it’s possible that the UK and EU will in time agree on a shared regulatory framework that will make data transfers, passporting and all the rest possible once more. Will the UK want to take that step and accept all the obligations that will go along with it? Its call.
It would be helpful if journalism recognized that Brexit per se leads to a WTO relationship and nothing more. That is the default now, not the status quo. Any negotiations will be starting from a WTO default and seeing if anything more can be mutually agreed.
They’ll not be starting from the current, EU membership status quo and subtracting things from that. Which is why claiming that the EU is threatening to withhold this or that are misleading. We’re starting with nothing & seeing if we can add to that, not starting from everything.
And you’d have to say that thus far any reluctance to have a deeper-than-WTO relationship has been more evident on the UK side that in the EU side. To put it mildly. So we will see what HMG decides to do in 2020.
But since we’ll be starting from WTO, the first question will not be “will the City lose access to the EU SM”. It’ll be “can we agree on a zero tariff zero quota deal”, which is a minimal ambition but also a far from certain outcome given the level playing field requirements.
