A “smart” Brexit deal could serve as a model for the EU’s future relations with other non-EU states, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel says, the BBC reported.
Turkey and Ukraine were two states that could benefit from the template, he told Germany’s Funke media group.
He did not see either joining the EU any time soon, so alternative forms of closer co-operation were needed.
The UK’s future relationship with the EU, which it is due to leave on 29 March 2019, is still being negotiated.
The two sides agreed this month on the three “divorce” issues that took up the first phase of negotiations: how much the UK owes the EU, what happens to the Northern Ireland border and what happens to UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU and EU citizens living in the UK.
In June 2016, the UK voted in a referendum to leave the EU after more than four decades of membership.
