Vitoria .- The Chief Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has defended an economic relationship for his country “as close as possible with the European Union”, because it is its closest partner and its most important market.
Drakeford has given an interview to EFE during his visit to the Basque Country, in which he reviews the impact of Brexit in Wales.
Wales is a country with three million inhabitants that is part of the United Kingdom.
Q: Wales voted for Brexit with 52%. Do you think your country would vote against Brexit today?
A: It is difficult to answer. The Welsh government has always believed that our future would be much better in Europe.
I think young people in Wales have always believed this, that they would be better off in Europe, but there are people who I am sure if there was another referendum tomorrow they would not change their minds.
Wales would be better off in the EU
Neither did the Welsh government, we continue to believe that our future would be better within the EU.
Now we are not allowed to be inside Europe, but we work to maintain our relations with our European neighbors.
Q: What has Brexit meant for Wales? They have lost European funds and pay more business taxes.
A: Brexit in general has posed more challenges and fewer opportunities for Wales.
There are new barriers to trade, our young people cannot enter programs like Erasmus plus and our universities are also not part of the EU’s Horizon programmes.
Q: The protocol between the United Kingdom and Brussels on the situation in Northern Ireland has just been signed. What do you think and how does it affect Wales?
A: It seems very good to me, it is a new beginning for the solution of problems that had not been resolved satisfactorily. It must be a first step, not the only one, to improve these relations with Europe.
Wales is directly affected because our ports are the main route through which trade passes from the Republic of Ireland to Wales and to EU countries, so we have a direct interest in relations between the island of Ireland and Great Brittany are the best they can be.
Q: There is no longer any talk of the possibility of a second referendum on Brexit. Is it ruled out?
A: For the moment yes. There is no realistic prospect that this is possible, we are not going to return to being full members of the EU at the moment.
I believe that we should approach as close an economic relationship as possible with the EU, it is our closest partner, our most important market.
There are programs that are open to countries that are not within the EU that we could re-enter: Erasmus plus, Interreg (regional development), Euroatom (research) and a series of forums, such as security medical and food.
With them we could repair some of the damage that was done with Brexit.
The Chief Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford (i), with the lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu (d). EFE / David Aguilar
Q: How are your relations with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak?
A: With Boris Johnson and Liz Truss they were not good. I think Sunak has a different character, much more respectful with the delegation of powers, we can have a better relationship with him.
We belong to different parties but I think we are going to have a respectful and productive relationship.
Q: Do you still think that there will be early elections, perhaps this year, in the United Kingdom, due to the difficulties of your government?
A: I think that within twelve months there will be elections, including this year, but more likely in the first part of next year.
Q: There are voices in Scotland who insist on independence. What opinion is there in your country about a possible independence for Wales?
A: In Wales we have never had the same level of interest in independence as we have seen in recent years in Scotland.
The vast majority of Welsh people believe in devolving power (devolution) in a successful UK.
This offers us advantages: we are in control of domestic affairs, but we benefit from being part of the UK. EFE