PM In Paris For Brexit Talks With Hollande

“No one wants things to be up in the air – neither Britain nor the member states of the EU”, Merkel said.

At a joint news conference, the French president said Brexit was the decision of the British people and it needed to be respected.

President Hollande reiterated this point and added that there is a unique case for Ireland in the Brexit negotiations and that the Good Friday Agreement was of particular importance.

After a quietly impressive performance in Berlin Theresa May is in Paris today for what will be a much pricklier encounter with the French president, Francois Hollande, writes Peter Foster.

The Republican Guard was in position as Mr Hollande greeted the Prime Minister at his official residence.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President François Hollande papered over their differences over how quickly the United Kingdom should exit the European Union in a bid to smooth choppy relations since Britons voted to leave the bloc.

Unlike Mrs Merkel, who has been determinedly measured since the Brexit vote, Mr Hollande and his ministers have made no secret that they intend to make Britain “face the consequences” of daring to suggest life might be better outside Europe.

Hollande said that May’s appointment on July 13 as prime minister had more quickly than expected resolved the question of who would lead the negotiations on Britain’s behalf, leaving little reason to postpone.

“The sooner the negotiations are open the better, and the shorter the better”, he said after talks in Dublin with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

“For France, the sooner the better”, he said.

“We are very strict about how we make our strikes and I have no feedback about the responsibility of the French”.

Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has sparked fears a “hard Border” between us and the North will return and the common travel area will change.

He defended warnings he gave during the referendum campaign that Britain could not necessarily expect to keep access to the single market without free movement of people.

French hostility to Britain’s exit plans was summed up by Mr Lamy, a former chief of staff to Jacques Delors, the architect of European Union federalism.

“That is why I have said already that this will not happen before the end of this year”.