UK and France strengthen links

The location was chosen in homage to the 600,000 British and French soldiers killed or injured near the town in the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago – which will see major commemorations in July.
Speaking after the summit British Prime Minister David Cameron said it “has been about how Britain and France stand together to keep our people safe,” saying the location had been “fitting” because of the soldiers who died on the Somme “fighting for our freedom”.
He added: “Throughout the last century Britain and France stood shoulder to shoulder in defence of our values and our way or life – and we do so again today”.
Mr Cameron said they discussed ways to build a “comprehensive strategy to defeat the threat from Islamist extremism both at home and abroad”.
French and British air strikes against Daesh were “degrading their capability” and they were “now struggling to hold territory they once confidently claimed”.
He added it was also vital to end civil war in Syria and to that end he, President François Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel would telephone Russian president Vladimir Putin for talks today.
Tackling extremism in Africa was also on the agenda, he said, as well as strengthening counterterrorism cooperation on information sharing and transport security at home. France and Britain would also invest €1.9 billion in ‘next generation’ military drones to help “protect us from the terrorist threat”.
Referring to the migrant crisis, Mr Cameron said Britain had not so far been seriously impacted due to being outside the Schengen zone and therefore retaining control of its borders, plus partnership with the French at Calais to deter migrants seeking to cross the Channel.
He said Britain was pledging an extra €22 million in priority security infrastructure in Calais to assist the work of the French police.
He said: “The money will also go towards efforts to move people from the camps in Calais to facilities elsewhere in France and will fund joint work to return migrants not in need of protection to their home countries.”
Speaking to journalists, Mr Hollande also raised the Calais issue, saying that the town and its whole region was “suffering”.
Asked by a British journalist if he was “trying to scare people over Calais so that Britain stays in the EU”, he said he had no intention of “dictating their choice” to the British people, but “I cannot deny there would be consequences”.
Speaking to the Financial Times Mr Macron was less circumspect.
He said if there is a Brexit France would probably end the Le Touquet agreements, whereby there are British border controls in Calais and French riot police help stop migrants from getting onto ferries or trains to the UK.
“The day this relationship unravels, migrants will no longer be in Calais,” he said.
Echoing what Mr Cameron said following Mr Hollande’s election in 2012, when he invited French bankers concerned about Socialist taxes to come to London, he added that he would expect to see some of the thousands of French bankers who work there coming back to France because “financial passport” rights allowing their institutions to operate across the EU would “work less well”.
“If I were to reason like those who roll out red carpets, I would say we might have some repatriations,” he said.
He also said that if Britain left the EU it would lose full access to the single market. “People deciding to leave the single market will not be able to secure the same terms,” he said.