Relations between France and Britain are strained because the current UK government does not honour its word, President Emmanuel Macron said.
Macron accused London of failing to keep its word on the matter of fishing licences, but he said France was willing to re-engage in good faith, and called for British re-engagement over the humanitarian question of dangerous Channel crossings after at least 27 migrants drowned trying to reach the British coast.
Macron said at a news conference that the British government does not do what it says. He added that there had been progress in the last few weeks and that France wanted full cooperation with London.
I love Great Britain, I love its people. He said that I have an overwhelming desire to have a government that wants to work with us in good faith.
At an Elyse press conference to present France's plans for a rotating presidency of the European Union, Macron was asked about UK-French relations amid tensions over how to prevent further tragedy in the Channel as more people try to claim asylum in the UK.
He claimed that the UK had an economic model that relied on illegal labour that was serving as a pull factor across the Channel.
Since the 1980s there is still an opaque system where the British economic model rests on the illegal labour of foreigners. If those situations aren't dealt with in good faith by the British, we'll always have this situation at our border, where France has the good will to manage this point of passage. He said of Britain: We need to work together on the issue of migration. He said if we want to solve the question of migration between our two countries, which has become a humanitarian question, we need British reengagement. Macron said that men and women were living in terrible conditions on the Calais coast because they wanted to reach British soil. France had offered accommodation centres and tens of thousands of meals throughout the year, but people wanted to reach the UK. He deplored the fact that there is no legal procedure on processing asylum rights by the British at the Channel border, which meant people were risking their lives to find a way to live in the UK in order to reach the UK.
Macron said he hoped that the row over British fishing licences to French fishers post-Brexit would be resolved before a French deadline on Friday, despite the UK denying they are working to any such timeframe. There has been progress over the past two weeks, and there is a sincere reengagement I hope new paths open up on it. I really hope that's what Macron said.
On defence, Britain had pushed for the Aukus security pact between Britain, Australia and the United States that caused Australia to cancel a contract with France to buy submarines.
The cancellation of the submarines deal caused an uproar in France, with accusations that its allies had stabbed it in the back. For the first time, Macron accused Britain of being a fervent promoter of the rival deal. How can I ignore the fact that the British fought the fervent promoters of a contract which deliberately fought against France's interest in the Indo-Pacific to build an exclusive alternative vision? He said something.
He said that all of this did not amount to the signs of a flagrant friendship, to use an understatement, but he said he wanted to work with the British government in good faith.
Britain has said that the deal with Aukus was not intended to undermine its defence ties with France.
Ahead of France's rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, Macron called for new mechanisms to protect the EU's borders and provide emergency support for border crises after thousands of migrants gathered on the border between Belarus and Poland in recent months. Europe needs to ensure the protection of its borders, he told a news conference that France will push for the reform of the Schengen area of passport-free travel between 26 countries in Europe.
Macron, who is due to meet Germany's new Social Democrat chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Friday that the EU should reconsider its strict budget deficit rules as governments spend heavily to save their economies from the impact of Covid restrictions.