UK’s Truss cool on Macron’s European community plan

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss shot down French President Emmanuel Macron’s idea of a “European political community” beyond the EU that included London, In an interview published on Friday,

Former French President Francois Mitterrand proposed a European confederation of nations as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and while the idea sparked interest, it never took off.

“My preference is to build on the structures we already have that work successfully, whether it is the G7 or NATO,” Truss told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, according to quotes provided by her ministry.

Macron has proposed a community “bringing together democratic European nations that adhere to the core of our values and that are aspiring or not to join the European Union”.

Mooting the idea on May 9, he said there could be “a place” for Britain, which recently left the EU in a highly acrimonious divorce.

“In our response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis we are working very well through the G7 plus the EU to impose sanctions on Russia,” Truss said when asked about the plan, adding that London was working with European countries to provide military aid to Kyiv.

In addition, “we have the Joint Expeditionary Force with the Scandinavians strengthening protection; and we are also working with allies like Italy very well bilaterally”.

She added: “We think these flexible agreements that we already have work very well; we are happy with these structures.”