France’s Macron hosts Starmer as UK seeks to reset Europe ties

Starmer (R) was greeted with a hug by Macron – Copyright AFP Marco BERTORELLO

UK premier Keir Starmer was welcomed warmly Thursday in Paris by French leader Emmanuel Macron, as the new centre-left British government seeks to relaunch post-Brexit ties with Europe.

Paris is the second leg of Starmer’s trip to key EU capitals, after the prime minister visited Berlin and announced treaty talks alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Macron strode out to meet Starmer for a demonstrative hug, slapping the recently-elected leader’s back and shaking his hand.

French presidents usually wait beside uniformed Republican Guards standing rigidly to attention at the top of the steps in the presidential palace’s courtyard when welcoming visitors.

The pair have plenty to discuss.

Like Germany, France is a key security partner for Britain — Paris and London hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council and are Western Europe’s only nuclear-armed powers.

The two countries share strong support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion since 2022.

More fraught is the issue of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK on boats, which the two countries’ security forces have cooperated for years to try to contain.

The issue was the first aim singled out by Starmer in a statement released ahead of the France visit, alongside stoking economic growth.

Migrant arrivals in Britain reached a record high in the first six months of the year, according to London, adding 18 percent year-on-year to reach 13,500 people.

Since the beginning of the year, 25 people have died in often dangerously-overcrowded craft, twice as many as in the whole of 2023.

Reaching a new level of cooperation with the EU as a whole may be more elusive than the treaty Starmer hopes to strike with Germany by year’s end.

He has made a classic choice of interlocutors in Scholz and Macron as the heads of the EU’s traditional Franco-German power couple.

But both are in a weakened state that may limit their influence on cross-Channel dealmaking.

Scholz heads a shaky three-party coalition set for a drubbing in three regional elections next month and unlikely to survive next year’s national ballot.

Macron is struggling to come up with a candidate for prime minister after a July snap election produced a hopelessly hung parliament — a stark contrast to Starmer’s unassailable majority.