The French president also plans to seek reassurance from May on her commitment to the Hinkley Point nuclear-power plant in the southwest of England and will press her on an agreement that allows the U.K.to conduct passport checks on French soil, according to a French government official with knowledge of the president’s plans. The German chancellor said that European Union rules stipulate a country must invoke Article 50 to start the legal process of leaving the 28-nation bloc.
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He reiterated those calls, but added that France can understand that the newly formed British needs time to prepare for the negotiation.
“It will be a choice facing the United Kingdom: remain in the single market and then assume the free movement that goes with it or to have another status”, he said.
In the UK, EU immigration was the most hotly-debated issue of the referendum campaign.
The French leader accepted Britain’s right to delay formal exit talks, but described the timing of its departure as “the sooner the better”, following the country’s shock vote to leave last month.
But May is in no rush to invoke Article 50, the official mechanism that starts the divorce proceedings. The victims were of 18 nationalities, Hollande said.
“In effect, both countries have specific and indeed unique concerns to be addressed in future negotiations”, they said.
Merkel, who is expected to play a pivotal role in the Brexit talks along with France, said it was in the interests of all that Britain had a “well-defined position” before the talks began. While the two will discuss the status of Article 50, no pre-negotiations will take place “formally or informally”, she said. The German chancellor struck a sympathetic note about it being right and necessary for Britain to take its time with preparations for triggering article 50. May, who struggled as interior minister to control migration into Britain, refused to give anything away on how she would balance voters’ demands for a reduction in movement with demands from business to keep access to the EU’s 500 million consumers. “There can not be freedom of movement of goods, capital and services if there isn’t free movement of people”.
May has handed the tough task of negotiating the details of the European Union departure to David Davis, who will run Whitehall’s new Brexit ministry, while two more Brexiters, Liam Fox and Johnson, have been put in charge of trade and foreign affairs, both key departments as the practical challenges of negotiating an exit emerge.
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He said uncertainty was the greatest danger and also repeated France’s argument that Britain could only get access to the single market if it accepted the free movement of people. After the press conference, May and Hollande attended a working dinner where the leaders were served lobster salad, veal with spinach, vanilla mousse with strawberries and cheese.
