The UK will have to “bear the brunt” of a weaker economic relationship with the EU after the Brexit process, Angela Merkel said on Saturday, softening her tone as negotiations for an agreement on future relationships skate.
While the British government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to define its posture after the country’s withdrawal from the EU, “it will then, of course, have to bear the consequences – that is, a less closely linked economy “, warns the German Chancellor in an interview with daily newspapers from the Europa network, including Le Monde.
Leaving the EU on January 31, the United Kingdom is now negotiating with Brussels in an attempt to establish an advantageous commercial relationship with the European bloc at the end of the transition period ending at the end of the year.
Germany will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1 for six months.
“We have to get rid of the idea that it is we who define what the United Kingdom should want,” asserts the Chancellor, who in the past has always redoubled her efforts to avoid a hard Brexit.
“The UK is defining and we, as the EU of 27, are providing the appropriate response,” she said now.
“If the United Kingdom does not want regulations comparable to that of Europe in terms of the environment, the labor market or social standards, our relations will lose intensity,” she adds.
The EU finds itself facing tough negotiations on the recovery fund of 750 billion euros intended to provide a response to the European countries most affected by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
This fund “cannot solve all the problems of Europe”, but it is necessary, according to Merkel, “to act quickly in the face of the pandemic” given the state of the European economy with unemployment rates which can become very high in some countries.
This could “have an explosive political impact” and therefore worsen the “threats to democracy”, she warns.
“For Europe to survive, its economy must also survive,” said the Chancellor.
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