Three years after leaving the European Union and in a context of an unprecedented economic and social crisis in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made his first trip abroad on Friday after assuming the current position, in Paris, to meet with the president Emmanuel Macron.
The UK has experienced a deep cost of living crisis in recent months with its consequences – massive social movements. We remind you that in December, thousands of British nurses stopped work for two days to demand better pay. It was, according to local political analysts, a first in the last century. On February 1, half a million people took to the streets of the country’s major cities to also demand higher wages. In the context of an economic and social crisis, under the threat of recession and record inflation, the quoted analysts point out, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak came to Paris animated by the desire to renew relations with France and the European Union. And in Paris, says the French press, there seems to be the same desire. Claude France Arnould said it directly, a former ambassador, former executive director of the European Defense Agency, who emphasized the need – in this new international context – for a Franco-British rapprochement.
On the agenda of the Macron-Sunak talks were extremely sensitive European issues, the priority being the files related to the war in Ukraine, European security, cooperation in the field of space defense, cyber security and, of course, migration, London being intensely concerned in recent months of the possibility of stopping illegal immigration.
The situation was and continues to be in the last year even worse because in the current circumstances, aggravated by Brexit, Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, inflation, the crisis of multilateralism, the United Kingdom is deprived of the protections of the European Union, especially The European recovery plan existing in each country of the Union.
A deal on migrants, already done
On Friday, the signing of a deal between the UK and France on migration was announced, by which the two countries want to stop illegal immigration to the UK from France. The agreement provides for increased funding over the next three years by the British side for the establishment of a new detention center in northern France, a new command center with teams from both sides and a corps of 500 new officers to patrol French beaches. More drones and other surveillance technology will increase the interception rate. President Macron evoked an important idea in the current context: “In the fight against illegal immigration, the sensitivity of the subject and considerations of a human nature must be taken into account”. During the debates, the French side recalled that, in 2022, more than 1,300 crossings of the English Channel with improvised boats were prevented, 55 organized crime chains were dismantled, precisely thanks to the effective activity of the French-British mixed cell. In contrast, 46,000 illegal crossings from France to the British coast managed to escape border guards. The agreement on the financing of these joint activities to block illegal migration was renewed.