PARIS, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain’s European partners warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that his hardline Brexit stance was putting the UK on a “collision course” with the EU and called on the new premier to avoid “provocations”.
Johnson is planning meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the next few weeks, officials said as the British premier insists he will renegotiate the UK’s divorce accord with the European Union.
Macron extended the invitation to Johnson in a call late Thursday from his official summer vacation residence in the south of France, where he is expected to stay for the next three weeks, said an aide.
But in a sign of wariness about Johnson’s anti-EU rhetoric, France’s Europe Minister Amelie de Montchalin urged Britain’s new leader to create a working relationship with his partners on the continent.
“From our side, we need to be responsible,” she told France 2 television. “That means being clear, predictable and it means on the other side that we need to create a working relationship, that there aren’t games, posturing, provocations.”
Macron, a devoted Europhile who is seeking to deepen links between EU members, views Brexit as an act of self-harm by Britain and he has been highly critical of Johnson personally in the past.
The timing of the meeting between Macron and Johnson was unclear. The British prime minister is due in France to attend the G7 meeting of developed nations in Biarritz on Aug 24-26.
Merkel’s office said Johnson had accepted an invitation from the 65-year-old German Chancellor for “an early visit” to Berlin. No date was given.
Johnson insists he wants to renegotiate a divorce deal which was drafted by his predecessor Theresa May over the last two years, only to see it rejected by British MPs three times in parliament.
Johnson has staked his reputation on bringing Britain out of the EU by the current Oct 31 deadline, meaning that if new negotiations are refused the UK would crash out without a deal in place.
Ireland’s foreign minister was also quoted as saying on Friday that Johnson has deliberately set Britain on a “collision course” with the EU over Brexit negotiations.
“He seems to have made a deliberate decision to set Britain on a collision course with the European Union and with Ireland in relation to the Brexit negotiations,” Simon Coveney was quoted by Irish state broadcaster RTE as saying in Belfast. — NNN-AGENCIES
