* Policy Areas + Agriculture and Food + Brexit Transition + Competition and Industrial Policy + Cybersecurity and Data Protection -- Hot Topics * Coronavirus in Europe * Brexit * U.S. Transition * Brussels Playbook -- Letter from France Never mind Brexit. Britain and France are condemned to work together. Surface hostility obscures often-ignored truth: Britain and France are -- number of Britons living in France, mostly in rural areas and most of them middle-aged or retired. Those figures may change a little post-Brexit but not dramatically. On economic and commercial questions, the two countries have many -- Le Touquet treaty of 2003, provide the first line of British “defense” against unwanted migrants (and some genuine asylum seekers). In recent weeks, en plein Brexit, the two governments agreed to strengthen this cooperation. This Franco-British relationship — vital, inevitable and almost unacknowledged by many Brits — will become even more important post-Brexit. Despite the post-Brexit trade deal clinched at the 11^th hour, many difficulties will arise starting on January 1, when Britain leaves the barrier-free European single market. Those difficulties will appear -- work together. In the early post-Brexit years, Boris Johnson’s government will seek eye-catching ways to justify its claims that the new “global Britain” will “thrive mightily” outside the EU. Anything tainted with the blue -- Much may depend on the result of the French election in 2021. Macron has laid out a vision of a broader, looser Europe, with a strong EU core, stretching to Russia in the east and a post-Brexit U.K. in the west. He believes that the British can be drawn back, by inescapable economic and strategic facts, into a looser relationship with Europe. -- it work in theory?” In the post-Brexit years, those roles could be reversed. France will play a leading role in Britain’s attempts to define its new -- * 4 EU should stop speaking ‘broken English’ after Brexit, says French minister January 12, 2021 7:18 pm * -- November 9, 2020 4:44 am By Paul Taylor Any Brexit deal is better than no deal Europe At Large Any Brexit deal is better than no deal October 15, 2020 4:00 am By Paul Taylor Related Tags Brexit British politics Diplomacy French politics History Security Trade Related Countries -- * Policy Areas + Agriculture and Food + Brexit Transition + Competition and Industrial Policy + Cybersecurity and Data Protection