The United Kingdom and the EU agree to strengthen migration cooperation in the English Channel

The Labor leader wants to “improve” the Brexit agreement if he reaches the Government

MADRID/BRUSSELS, 17 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have agreed on Wednesday to strengthen cooperation between the EU and the British authorities on migration, with a view to collaborating on common “challenges”. such as the situation in the English Channel.

Von der Leyen has confirmed on Twitter his support for a future agreement that will involve greater collaboration between the United Kingdom and the European border agency (Frontex), at the end of a meeting with Sunak that took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, on the margins of the summit of leaders of the Council of Europe.

This “new working agreement”, as Downing Street has described it, will allow “working together on critical operational and strategic challenges, including the situation in the Canal”, while waiting now to discuss the “details”. The United Kingdom wants to control the migratory flow from France, for which it has proposed a reform that contemplates enabling ferries to welcome migrants and expedite deportations.

In another order of things, Von der Leyen and Sunak have also stressed the importance of trade relations between the two parties after the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU and the need to continue helping Ukraine, also through the imposition of sanctions on Russia. . Both leaders agree that the G7 summit in Japan “will be a moment to demonstrate the unity of international support for Ukraine.”

DOUBTS ABOUT BREXIT

Relations between the EU and the United Kingdom have been marked in recent years by Brexit, not only in the negotiation phase prior to the divorce but also in the subsequent context, during which the British authorities have tried to qualify the commitments signed in key pillars such as the Northern Ireland protocol.

One of the main Eurosceptic politicians, Nigel Farage, said in an interview with the BBC on Monday that Brexit had “failed”, insofar as the British economy would not have benefited as expected from the supposed advantages of breaking ties with the European Union.

This Wednesday, Labor Keir Starmer, the main opposition leader, has advocated on Sky News for “improving” the agreements signed, after a company linked to the Vauxhall automaker questioned the continuity of the plants on British soil. Starmer has promised that his party will seek “a better deal.”

“I don’t think many people see the agreement and think that it is working well,” he pointed out, in an interview in which, however, he has established as ‘red lines’ of these potential negotiations that the United Kingdom will not join the Union European Union or the single market.