Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, whose country currently holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, said on Thursday 15 February that he hopes the United Kingdom will ultimately return to the EU fold and warned about the lack of progress that has been made in Brexit negotiations, AFP has reported.
“I really hope that the Brexit talks will move on so that no one will suffer”, he is reported by AFP as telling journalists on the sidelines of an informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Sofia. “I’m not very hopeful. I haven’t seen any progress so far that can really reassure me”, he added.
He also called on London to reconsider its decision, echoing similar calls by Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker in January. “I truly hope the United Kingdom will re-join the European Union”, he said.
UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, a supporter of UK withdrawal from the EU, gave a speech in London on Wednesday 14 February, lauding Brexit and promising the British people that it would not be the disaster predicted. What happens after Brexit will depend on what “we do with it. And we will make it a success”, he stated. “In time, it may unite the country”, he said.
He sought to give reassurance on the economic consequences of Brexit. Leaving the EU was “not a great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover”, he said. “It’s not about returning to some autarkic 1950s menu of spam and cabbage and liver” but simply about taking back control of the country’s borders and laws.
Johnson also warned those opposed to Brexit, stating that holding another referendum on EU membership would be a “disastrous mistake that would lead to permanent and ineradicable feelings of betrayal”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)