The European Commission president has claimed that Britain will need to have full movement of people post-Brexit if it wants full movement of goods.
Ursula von der Leyen’s comments come ahead of her visit to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.
Addressing the European Parliament on Tuesday, she said: “It’s the UK’s choice to decide on how close or how distant they want to be from the European Union, but that also means from the single market.
“You cannot have no free movement for people, then expect to have free movement for goods, capital or services.”
She continued: “It’s either all four have a free movement or none of this is possible.
“You cannot expect to have a level playing field if there’s a huge divergent in taxation, or social standards or environmental standards.
“So it is the choice of the UK how far they want to align or diverge – but this is decisive for how good the access to the single market will be or not.
“In short, it’s the old proverb: you cannot have the cake and eat it at the same time”.
President von der Leyen’s is set to meet with the Irish Leo Varadkar on Wednesday, during her first official visit to the Republic of Ireland.
The next step in the post-Brexit negotiations is set to be high on the agenda, with the pair set to hold a joint press conference before Mr Varadkar hosts a dinner for Ms von der Leyen.
Ms von der Leyen recently visited London, where she claimed not every aspect of the EU and UK’s future relationship will be able to be agreed upon in time for the Brexit transition period ending.
She said: “The truth is that our partnership cannot and will not be the same as before.
“It cannot and will not be as close as before, because with every choice comes a consequence… with every decision comes a trade-off.”
British MPs in the House of Commons passed the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement by a significant majority last week.
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