Macron discusses ‘remaining friends’ with UK
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It comes after reports that the UK may be asked to rejoin the EU’s Galileo project. The satellite system is an £8billion navigation project intended to rival the US-controlled Global Positioning System (GPS). The UK was barred from the Galileo project following its departure from the EU.
However, David Morris, Conservative MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, believes the UK will likely rejoin the project, and that much of political rivalry between the bloc and the UK will calm down soon.
Mr Morris, who is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Space Committee, accused EU countries of currently “posturing” over Brexit.
France is heading for a presidential election in April this year, Mr Macron is currently neck in neck with his opposition in opinion polls in the country.
Because of this pressure, the EU’s hardline stance against Britain participating in ambitious projects like Galileo could be seen as political grandstanding in an effort to appease Mr Macron’s voter base.
Mr Morris added: “I do think that eventually we’ll all see sense and we’re all start working together, once the French elections are over.
“They’re all posturing at the minute. We’ve just got to wait.
“In my observation, the space industry in Europe is quite integrated. We all work together and have been through Brexit.
“When it comes down to the actual mechanism and making things works, we do work closely and we have done it for decades.
“I think at the minute there’s a lot of posturing with Brexit going on. I’m talking about the political side of things.
“There’s a lot of sabre-rattling going on.
“To be fair to the space industry, it has more resilience in its connections with business between EU and states like the UK.”
Mr Morris believes that the pressure over international conflicts like that in Ukraine may hasten the UK’s re-entry into major projects like Galileo, which could form an integral part of cybersecurity.
He said: “What will sharpen everyone’s attention is that say if there’s any kind of skirmish in Ukraine, it would make everyone reevaluate their intelligence resources.
“One of them will be this [Galileo]. Cyber security is really high up there. We need to be in a position to be ready for if that happens.
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In the French presidential election, Mr Macron is losing ground against Valerie Pecresse, should the two presidential candidates face each other in the second round of the election.
The conservative right-wing politician is expected to tie with Mr Macron in a second round of the 2022 presidential election, according to a poll by Elabe conducted for BFM TV and L’Express last week.
The poll put Macron in the lead in the first round of voting, albeit down three percentage points from before at 23 percent, though above 17 percent each for Pecresse and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.
In the second round, Emmanuel Macron does not manage to widen the gap, quite the contrary.
In the event that he has to face Valérie Pécresse, the two candidates are given 50-50.
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