Calais is ready for no deal, but is Britain?

We should do everything we can to secure an orderly divorce but also remember it’s not an end in itself

We can spend our time bemoaning the uncertainty arising from Brexit. We can talk forever about missed opportunities. Or we can collectively decide, as Europeans and Britons, to pull ourselves together and act.

And we need to act immediately. This is what we have been doing for several months in the Hauts-de-france region, with the French government’s local administration, to ensure the ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, as well as the Eurotunnel and airports, have 100 per cent fluidity on day one in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Yes, I would like to make it absolutely clear: our ports and the Eurotunnel will be ready, including in the event of a no deal. But we are in a bilateral relationship: Dover and the Eurotunnel in Folkestone also need to be ready, and British road infrastructure needs to adapt.

If a no-deal Brexit is indeed a threat to cross-channel trade, poor co-ordination of our preparations could be damaging. This is why, in Lille, I recently brought together hundreds of businesses, from various European countries, to talk with British and French customs and civil servants. I want to protect jobs in France and the UK, but also in the rest of the EU: because cross-channel trade matters for the whole of Europe.

We have to prevent a badly managed Brexit from generating excessive red tape on both sides of the Channel. In particular, we should do everything to secure a deal. I cannot begin to imagine there not being a deal between the UK and the EU. We share too many things to simply stare at one another like statues. I am telling our respective negotiators, who have done a remarkable job, as well as our respective governments and MPS: for God’s sake, do not forget that legalism is not incompatible with pragmatism!

We need to bring the divorce phase to a conclusion. The UK Government and MPS ought to make a definitive choice. This uncertainty is in the interests of no one. We seem to forget that the divorce agreement is not an end in itself. It is just a stage. The most important thing is to build the future relationship between the UK and Europe. A relationship in which France will play a key role.

However, we have to prepare for all the post-brexit options, including no deal. Tomorrow, our British neighbours may become non-eu citizens, but they will not become aliens. The UK will have been a member of the EU for almost half a century. This means it will never be just another third country. Europe needs to hear and understand this, and draw out all the consequences for the establishment of our new relationship.

For the future, everything remains to be built. And behind this apparent chaos, the founding pillars of our relationship remain.

First, geography precedes history. From Dover to Calais, there will always be 20.7 miles. Nothing will ever alter this proximity. For more than a century we have had a privileged relationship, on battlefields as well as in commercial and technological partnerships. It now needs to be strengthened. We need to move from the entente cordiale to an even more cordial form of cooperation.

Secondly, we have the 2010 Lancaster House Treaty on defence: it should be the cornerstone of our new relationship. France and the UK are the two essential nations when it comes to defending the Old Continent. Any European defence project that leaves out the British is neither viable nor credible.

Finally, thanks to our shared values, aspirations and cultures, the world’s great challenges place us naturally in the same team. This is a shared responsibility. Because as we debate endlessly about Brexit, the world continues to revolve without waiting for us Europeans.

Let us face up to these challenges together: they are far more important for our future than Brexit. Whether we are talking about the dominance of the Big Four tech firms, the new Cold War between China and the US, our relationship with Russia, migration, defence and democracy, free trade, scientific research projects or our security: these challenges encourage us to work closely together. We must cooperate to make ourselves mutually stronger; it is not the first time, and it will certainly not be the last time.

Xavier Bertrand is president of the Hauts-de-france region of France