French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to maintain good relations with the UK after Brexit, while PM Boris Johnson insists the bloc should recognize Britain’s right to sovereignty before a trade deal is signed.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa in Paris, Macron said on Wednesday that he wanted the best relationship possible with the UK going forward.
The French president stressed, however, that it is key for “the integrity of the European single market to be maintained,” and he defended “the strengthening of a strong monetary economic union” despite ongoing uncertainties over the Brexit outcome.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament earlier in the day that a narrow path is now visible toward a deal: “I cannot tell you whether there will be a deal or not. But I can tell you that there is a path to an agreement now.”
Meanwhile, Johnson himself expressed hope on Wednesday that the EU would agree on a post-Brexit trade deal, saying the bloc first needed to recognize Britain’s right to sovereignty.
“Every hope I have [is] that our friends and partners across the Channel will see sense and do a deal, and all that that takes is for them to understand that the UK has a natural right…to want to be able to control its own laws and its own fishing grounds,” the PM told Parliament.
On Monday, France warned that the UK has the most to lose after leaving the EU. “The British people will be the biggest losers from Brexit,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said.
He also described Brexit as “madness,” adding that the impact of the UK’s departure from the EU on the French economy would be limited to 0.1 percentage points of its gross domestic product next year.
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