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Reuters
LONDON/PARIS
France on Friday politely rejected Boris Johnson's idea of building a giant bridge across the English Channel after Brexit, saying that, while far-fetched ideas were worth considering, there were plenty of major European projects to finish first.
Foreign Secretary Johnson, who led the campaign to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, broached the idea of building a 22-mile Channel Bridge during a visit to Britain by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
Britain's most prominent Brexiteer even explained some of his ideas on Channel crossings to Macron, who the newspaper reported gave a short but positive reply.
France's finance minister, though, gave the idea short shrift."All ideas merit consideration, even the most far-fetched ones,"Bruno Le Maire said, noting that the Channel Tunnel already linked Europe's second- and third-largest economies.
"We have major European infrastructure projects that are complicated to finance,"Le Maire told Europe 1 radio."Let's finish things that already under way before thinking of new ones."
Prime Minister Theresa May's appointment of Johnson, who in the run-up to Britain's referendum on EU membership compared the goals of the European Union to those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon, caused consternation in European capitals.
It took two centuries for Britain to countenance the construction of the Channel Tunnel, which French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once suggested, though the land link has repeatedly been the focus of concerns about illegal immigration."
Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections. Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?"Johnson tweeted.
