French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday welcomed the possibility of the United Kingdom rejoining the European Union, after UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham raised the prospect as part of a closer relationship with the bloc.
“Welcome back,” Macron said in English while speaking alongside Sanchez in Madrid. “This prime minister is moving in that direction,” Macron added. “I think it’s very good news both for his country and for the Europeans”, AFP reported. Burnham, who became UK’s prime minister in July after Keir Starmer resigned, said Britain could consider several options for resetting its relationship with the EU. “We have to look at what is doable, and what would be the pros and cons of each” option, Burnham said. He said Brexit had contributed to “a decade of low growth” and argued that the UK needed to determine its long-term relationship with its largest trading partner. Burnham said he would set out “different options” ahead of a planned summit with the 27-member bloc later this year.
In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, he said these could include rejoining the bloc’s single market, entering a customs union or pursuing full EU membership.
“The UK is a close and valued partner of the European Union,” European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said. “It is for the UK government to set out how it wishes to develop its relationship with the EU going forward.”
