France to Offer U.K. Migration Deal With EU Amid Brexit Feud
(Bloomberg) -- France is preparing to offer Boris Johnson proposals for an agreement with the European Union on migration, less than a week after Emmanuel Macron slammed the U.K. premier for not taking the issue seriously enough.
Prime Minister Jean Castex will write to Johnson on Tuesday to suggest they work on a pact with the EU after at least 27 people died crossing the channel to try and reach the U.K.
“We want a balanced deal offering real solutions including to the problems of France and Europe,” France's interior minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday after a defense cabinet meeting. “We don't want a mere unilateral accord.” Spokespeople for Castex didn't immediately return requests for comment.
Johnson's spokesman, Max Blain, told reporters that the prime minister has yet to receive the letter, but the U.K. wants to work “constructively” with France on the migration issue and that talks are ongoing at an official level.
In an exchange of barbs since the tragedy, British officials have said Macron wasn't doing enough to stop the crossings and the French have countered that U.K. labor market acts as an incentive to try to reach the country.
A letter to Johnson from Castex could be a first step in a cooling of tempers.
On Friday, Darmanin scrapped planned discussions with his U.K. counterpart Priti Patel because Johnson had made the contents of a letter he wrote to Macron outlining a proposed returns agreement public in a series of tweets. Macron, meanwhile, said France wouldn't work with the U.K. government until it “decided to be serious.”
The tensions add to a list of existing disputes on range of issues from defense to the granting of fishing licenses. Immigration is a particularly sensitive topic both in France, where it's a main theme of campaigns for the April presidential election, and the U.K. because Johnson pitched tighter border controls as a benefit of Brexit.
France plans to double the number of staff patrolling the maritime border with the U.K. and beef up the fight against those who arrange the crossings, with the creation of seven new regional offices next year and a stronger legal arsenal, according to Darmanin.
He rejected Johnson's proposal for France to take back migrants, and warned against British attempts to return them, saying that would contradict international law. France contends that the only solution to the crisis is an international one.
EU interior ministers are meeting on Dec. 9 to discuss the issue, and Darmanin said he would travel to Slovenia and Poland by then.
France and the U.K. are already bound by a host of bilateral accords, including the 2003 Touquet agreement which strengthens controls in both countries and implies the Franco-British border is in France.
As the April presidential election nears, pressure on Macron's government is increasing from candidates who argue these agreements should be re-negotiated so that the U.K. takes on more responsibility in handling migrants. Even so, Darmanin said he wouldn't question them.
In July, the U.K. agreed to pay 62.7 million euros to France to fight against human trafficking on French coasts in 2021-2022, but has since threatened to suspend the payments.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
