French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Image: GETTY)
France and Germany are trying to strong-arm Britain into drastically altering post-Brexit rules for EU workers and students in return for a new migration agreement to cut the number of Channel crossings.
The EU’s two major players have urged the European Commission to push for concessions alongside an asylum deal with the UK, according to a leaked letter.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has made no secret of his wish to “reset” relations with the EU, after a charm offensive targeted at French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
However, any deal to return Channel migrants is likely to face significant challenges amid demands for increased youth mobility and a call for the UK to resettle genuine refugees from Europe.
In a joint letter seen by the Daily Telegraph, Paris and Berlin urged Brussels to “rapidly present a draft negotiating mandate with a view to reaching an agreement with the United Kingdom on asylum and immigration issues”.
Sir Keir Starmer with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz at the European Political Community Meeting (Image: Getty)
It added: “We believe that Brexit has had highly detrimental consequences for the coherence of our migration policies.
“The absence of provisions governing the movement of people between the UK and the Schengen area is clearly contributing to irregular flows – and the dangers posed to those taking this route across the Channel and the North Sea.”
The joint letter was sent on Friday by Nancy Faeser, the German Interior Minister, and Gerald Darmanin, her outgoing French counterpart.
Mr Darmanin has since been replaced in a new, more right-wing French government, which has promised an even tougher stance on illegal immigration, and which is led by Prime Minister and former Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Recently appointed French PM Michel Barnier (Image: Getty)
According to the EU’s border agency, Frontex, during the first eight months of this year, 41,078 migrants attempted to reach the UK from the Schengen zone.
Ms Faeser and Mr Darmanin claimed that the lack of a deal regulating the movement of “persons between the UK and the Schengen zone” was fuelling a the surge in irregular migration.
They added: “The arrival of a new British government, showing a willingness to work constructively with the EU, seems to present an opportunity for concrete progress on this issue.”
The EU is believed to see the negotiations as a way of forcing the UK to increase legal opportunities for EU citizens, particularly through youth mobility schemes. However, Labour has already rejected calls from Brussels to negotiate such a deal or rejoin the Erasmus student exchange programme.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (Image: Getty)
Diplomatic sources have previously indicated that any EU migrant return deal would likely require Britain to take in a share of migrants from EU countries under pressure, as member states currently do.
The letter continues: “We are relying on the Commission to address the issues of legal mobility, especially family and professional mobility, alongside the fight against illegal immigration and the right to asylum with our British partners.”
During the tortuous negotiations which followed the 2016 referendum, the Commission blocked UK proposals for an EU-wide migration deal to replace the Dublin regulation requiring migrants to stay in the first safe country they enter.
Any deal between the UK and the bloc would require the unanimous support of all 27 member states, which is likely to prove problematic.
Countries such as Italy and Greece, where many migrants first land, will doubtless resist their return to the EU, as will Hungary, let by right-winger Viktor Orban.
James Cleverly said Sir Keir ‘will do anything to cosy up to the EU’ (Image: Getty)
Addressing the European Political Community summit last week, Sir Keir said the UK would not quit the European Convention on Human Rights after abandoning the Rwanda Plan.
Next week Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will meet with Ms Faeser, Bruno Retailleau, Mr Darmanin’s replacement, and Italy’s Matteo Piantedosi at a G7 ministerial meeting.
The UK Government insists its red lines remain unchanged, with no return to freedom of movement or involvement in an EU migrant quota scheme.
Nevertheless, James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary and a Conservative leadership contender, told The Times: “Starmer would do anything to cosy up to the EU.
“This is a man who campaigned for a second referendum and claimed all immigration laws were racist. The EU is eager to play Labour like a fiddle.”