EU should use Brexit to PUNISH members who break rules warns German MEP

Countries including Poland and Hungary are at odds with Brussels over key policies such as immigration leading to a series of high profile rows in recent years.

With leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron pushing for a closely centralised bloc, there are now calls for the rest of Europe to leave Brussels behind and breakaway.

And a German MEP says Britain’s exit from the bloc will give EU chiefs a blueprint to punish rogue states. 

Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit said Brexit would provide a perfect model for Brussels to get rid of troublesome members and head off towards a superstate.

He said they should be free to leave the bloc if they were not happy with the direction the EU is going.

Predicting a “secession” for those countries, he said: “Brexit negotiations are model negotiations for such situations.”

He claimed that could allow the EU to “shrink healthily” without worrying abut the needs of eastern Europe.

And he held out the prospect of giving the breakaway states a “privileged partnership”, along the lines of the deal Britain may get when it leaves.

Mr Cohn-Bendit insisted Mr Macron’s proposals for a common budget, finance minister and army were the correct course.

He said: “For him, shaping the Eurozone is a prerequisite for Europe’s ability to act in the world.”

A huge dispute with eastern European countries erupted yet again last month over plans to share out refugees.

Rich countries like Italy, Germany and France are demanding that all member states host some refugees as a show of solidarity.

But Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic refuse to accept people from the mostly-Muslim Middle East and North Africa, saying that would threaten their security after a raft of Islamic attacks in Europe.

The four nations make up the Visegrad group, an alliance that is more hostile to EU policy than member states in the west.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit out at their defiance, saying: “There are areas where there is no solidarity and this is something I find unacceptable.”

European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, slammed the “ineffective” and “highly divisive” obligatory refugee quotas.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned: “The manner in which the principle of solidarity was being questioned does not only undermine the discussion on the refugee issue, but the future of Europe.”

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg