“The battle, this war against terrorism is also taking place outside of France”, Mr. Hollande said after a meeting of France’s defense council.
Advertisement
When asked about the possibility of Britain being granted a concession to access the single market, Kenny said this privilege goes along with the free movement of people.
He continued: “We would like it to be reflected in the best possible timescale to open a negotiation to establish what will be the relationship between the United Kingdom and European Union”.
Mr Kenny faced a disappointing response last week from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who did not take single out Ireland as being such a case, following Britain’s decision to leave the EU. “There can be no discussions, no pre-negotiation before the negotiation”, Hollande told a joint news conference with May. She added that upcoming negotiations should be calm and constructive.
But “Britain remains open for business”, she said. “We also want to get the right deal on the trade in goods and services”, she said.
But the French leader, under pressure after a deadly Islamist attack in Nice and keen to dampen the popularity of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front, was clear Britain could not put off invoking Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty for long.
After what was the fourth Defence Council meeting since Nice, Hollande also said France would have “to defend itself here” after a series of bloody attacks here claimed by so-called Islamic State.
The comments reveal the depth of anxiety in Europe’s key capitals about how both sides in the Brexit showdown have positioned themselves in the weeks after the shock June 23 vote to leave the bloc. She has looked assured on this her first European trip as PM.
He has a presidential election looming next year and faces a challenge from the far-right National Front, which wants France to leave the European Union too.
Brexit campaigners argued that the hundreds of thousands of European Union immigrants arriving in Britain every year have been pushing down wages for low-paid Britons and overburdened public services.
But behind the scenes, senior German officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, say they fear a swift move by London to invoke Article 50 of the European Union treaty risks creating an impossibly short window for negotiating Britain’s departure. There can not be freedom of movement of goods, free movement of capital, free movement of services if there isn’t a free movement of people …
On the ramifications of Brexit for the soft border between Northern Ireland and the South, the Taoiseach reiterated that the UK-Ireland Common Travel Area and freedom of movement should remain.
Advertisement
“I do recognise there is a special situation here for Ireland”, he said.
