France’s Macron welcomes UK’s Starmer to strengthen European relations

• Both leaders discussed the issue of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK, a contentious issue.
• Starmer's choice of leaders, Scholz and Macron, represents the traditional Franco-German power duo.
• However, their weakened positions may limit their influence on cross-Channel negotiations.

UK Premier Keir Starmer received a warm welcome from French leader Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday, as the new center-left British government aims to relaunch post-Brexit ties with Europe. Paris is the second stop on Starmer’s visit to key EU capitals, following his trip to Berlin where he announced treaty talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Macron walked out to greet Starmer with a demonstrative hug, patting the recently elected leader on the back and shaking his hand. Typically, French presidents stand beside uniformed Republican Guards at attention in the courtyard of the presidential palace when welcoming visitors. The two leaders have much to discuss.

Like Germany, France serves as a key security partner for Britain, with Paris and London holding permanent seats on the UN Security Council and being Western Europe’s only nuclear-armed powers. Both countries strongly support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion that began in 2022. However, the issue of migrants crossing the Channel to the UK by boat remains contentious. The security forces of both countries have collaborated for years to address this challenge.

Starmer highlighted the issue of migrants crossing the Channel as a primary concern in a statement released before he visited France, alongside a focus on boosting economic growth. According to London, migrant arrivals in Britain reached a record high in the first six months of the year, increasing by 18 percent year-on-year to a total of 13,500 people.

Since the beginning of the year, 25 people have died in often dangerously overcrowded boats, double the number of fatalities for all of 2023. Achieving a new level of cooperation with the EU as a whole might prove more challenging than finalizing the treaty Starmer hopes to secure with Germany by the end of the year. Starmer has chosen well-known interlocutors in Scholz and Macron, representing the traditional Franco-German power duo within the EU.

However, both leaders are in weakened positions that may limit their influence on cross-Channel negotiations. Scholz leads a fragile three-party coalition, which is expected to perform poorly in three regional elections next month and is unlikely to survive next year’s national election. Meanwhile, Macron is struggling to find a candidate for prime minister after a July snap election resulted in a hung parliament—a stark contrast to Starmer’s strong majority.

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