• YOUR interview with MP Sir Keir Starmer (Another election? Sooner the better, insists Sir Keir, June 15) demonstrates the need for the Labour leadership to plan carefully its approach to negotiations with our partners in the European Union.

We stress “partners” because the Theresa May government has adopted a dangerous and dysfunctional adversarial approach.

Two of us (Smith and Weeks) recently completed a report on EU economic reform, which prompts our suggestions on the focus of Labour Party Brexit policy.

As Keir Starmer indicates, a goal should be to enable continuing British access to the single market and customs union. A Labour government should also, however, make clear that it seeks improvements in economic policies across the EU and the Eurozone.

At the moment our European partners are discussing treaty changes for a more effective Eurozone.

This provides an opportunity for a forward-looking British government to contribute to changes that facilitate a positive and mutually beneficial framework between the UK and Europe, whatever form that agreement may finally take.

To achieve this, it is important to avoid a rush to an ill-considered (or no) agreement, the likely outcome for the May government. Labour should seek an extension of the Article 50 timeline to at least four years, which, of course, requires agreement on the EU side.

Achieving such an extension requires a British government to show that it has ended its negative, confrontational approach, to make clear that it would fully honour all budget commitments during the negotiation period, confirm that EU citizens resident in the UK would have their rights fully protected, and to pay our fair share for future mutual benefits arising from our negotiated agreement.

The final agreement must allow for the progressive economic policies in the Labour Party manifesto (for example, railway nationalisation), which may be inconsistent with clauses in EU treaties.

Labour should underline that the economic policies that underpin austerity within the EU also need changing, for the good of Britain and the EU itself.

A stronger commitment to full, good quality, employment should become a primary, not secondary aim of Article 3.3 of the Treaty on European Union.

Article 126 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union sets in concrete the so-called excessive deficit rules. These dysfunctional and destabilising rules reflect the “household budget fallacy” so prevalent in neoliberal economic policy.

By contrast the article ignores other major economic imbalances, such as the excessive build-up of private debts and the imbalances in current account surpluses and deficits.

Finally, the blanket prohibition on subsidies to private companies (so-called state aid) should at minimum be made more flexible. Closely related, the treaty rules that promote liberalisation of public services and impede public ownership should be altered to make these policies determined by the governments of the member states.

ANN PETTIFOR
JEREMY SMITH
Co-directors Prime Economics
JOHN WEEKS
SOAS (retired)