French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that the door was always open for Britain to remain in the EU after Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Brexit talks would begin next week.
“The negotiations on Brexit have not finished, hence nothing has been confirmed yet,” Macron said in a press conference.
But he also stressed that he respected the sovereign decision of the British people to leave the EU in their referendum a year ago, adding that the start of talks was an important milestone.
“We need to be clear and organised and once it (the Brexit process) has started we need to be collectively clear that it’s more difficult to reverse course,” he said at the Elysee palace.
Macron’s comments echoed the voices of others including German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday.
“If they wanted to change their decision, of course they would find open doors, but I think it’s not very likely,” Schaeuble told Bloomberg Television.
May repeated her plans to stick to her timetable of starting discussions next week despite ongoing negotiations to form a government.
Asked if the loss of her parliamentary majority in a bungled snap election last week would alter her decision to withdraw Britain from the EU single market and customs union, May stated, “I think there’s a unity of purpose among people in the UK having voted to leave the EU and their government gets on with that and makes a success of it.”
May added that the process would lead to a new arrangement for Brexit which will be in the interests of the United Kingdom and the remaining 27 members of the EU
After the talks, May and Macron also announced a joint action plan to tackle online extremism which aims to increase the pressure on internet giants and social media companies to tackle terror propaganda and hate speech.
It includes exploring the creation of new laws that would impose penalties on internet companies if they failed to act.