Macron: EU mired in civil war, but Britain should stay

EMMANUEL MACRON has said that Britain would be better off if it remained in the European Union.

Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the French president said he had “a direct reply” to questions over France’s attitude towards the future UK-EU relationship and Brexit. “I’m in favour of the most integrated relations, the closest relations. And there is a solution we’re very familiar with, and that’s EU membership,” he told MEPS during a debate on the future of Europe.

The EU insists that Britain’s Brexit red lines, such as leaving the single market, ending freedom of movement, the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and paying huge sums to Brussels, limited the depth of the future relationship.

The French president was given two standing ovations and numerous compliments by MEPS during the Strasbourg debate on the future of Europe.

However, as the European Commission proposed that Albania and Macedonia begin EU membership talks, Mr Macron indicated that he would not support any expansion of the European Union until the bloc is reformed. The EU risked being torn apart by a “civil war” between its liberal and authoritarian democracies, Mr Macron warned, before calling for accelerated reforms such as closer eurozone banking integration.

“There seems to be a sort of European civil war where selfish interests sometimes appear more important than what unites Europe,” he said. Mr Macron added that the EU must “build a new European sovereignty”.

Florian Philippot, a French MEP in Nigel Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group, accused Mr Macron of repeating all “the canons of the European catechism”.

Mr Macron also faced opposition from German MPS from the Christian Democrat Party, who tried to block Angela Merkel from backing his proposals.