GovWire

Prime Minister

May I start by offering my condolences to all those affected by the terrible attack on the train in Wurzburg on Monday. And my thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the attacks.

Chancellor, thank you for inviting me to Berlin today.

I am delighted to be here, on my first international visit as Prime Minister, just a week since I took office. It underlines my personal commitment to building a strong and constructive partnership between ourselves, Chancellor. A partnership that works for the benefit of people here in Germany and people back home in Britain too.

And obviously, this is the first visit to Germany of a British Prime Minister since the British people took the decision to leave the European Union. I have been clear that Brexit means Brexit and the United Kingdom is going to make a success of it.

But I also want to be clear, here today and across Europe in the weeks ahead, that we are not walking away from our European friends. Britain will remain an outward-looking country.

And Germany will remain a vital partner and a special friend for us. We have centuries of shared history, our languages and culture are deeply intertwined and in recent decades we have developed a strong alliance. This was reflected in Her Majesty the Queens historic state visit here just over a year ago.

It is in that constructive spirit that I have come here today, to lay the foundations for a strong relationship in the months and years ahead. I want Britain to continue to work with our European partners to boost trade and economic growth and to tackle the shared challenges we face.

These are issues that we have already touched on in our meeting and which I look forward to discussing further over dinner. I would like to say a few words on each.

First, the economic ties between our countries.

We are both leaders who want to drive stable economic growth and who believe in making sure that everyone shares in the benefits.

Germany is the UKs second largest trading partner worldwide and the second most important source of foreign investment into Britain. Here in Germany, there are 1,300 British companies employing more than 220,000 people.

Now of course, the nature of our relationship is going to change as the UK leaves the EU but we both want to maintain the closest possible economic relationship between our countries. And I believe that is what German and British businesses want too.

So it is good that we start from such a strong foundation and a position where both our countries believe in liberal markets and free trade. These should be the principles that guide us in the discussions ahead.

Second, we must continue to work together on the global challenges we face.

From standing up for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine to helping the millions suffering in Syria, Germany and the United Kingdom have often been a strong and united voice around the world.

We must further that co-operation. Our countries have already agreed to deepen our bilateral military partnership and to do more together to tackle organised crime.

And we will continue to work together to stem the flow of migrants across the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

And in light of the terrorist attacks in Nice and Wurzburg, we must strengthen our efforts to defeat Daesh and to stand up for the values that we share.

Of course, as we continue to work together we must also negotiate the UKs successful exit from the European Union. This will take time. And it will require serious and detailed work.

But as long as we are a member of the EU we will respect the rights and obligations of EU membership.

But I want to work with Chancellor Merkel and my colleagues around the European Council in a constructive spirit to make this a sensible and orderly departure.

All of us will need time to prepare for these negotiations and the United Kingdom will not invoke Article 50 until our objectives are clear.

That is why I have said already that this will not happen before the end of this year. I understand this timescale will not please everyone but I think it is important to provide clarity on that now.

We should strive for a solution which respects the decision of British voters, but also respects the interests of our European partners. Together, we should maximise the opportunities for both the UK and the EU.

To conclude, I said recently that the United Kingdom should not be defined exclusively by the process of our withdrawal from the EU. Nor should it define our relationships with countries around the world.

Of course, there are challenges ahead and much to be worked through, but I do believe that upon leaving the European Union, the United Kingdom can forge strong and successful relationships with European countries and that those relationships can benefit not just Britain but our partners too.

As we embark on that new chapter, I look forward to working with you, Chancellor, to develop that successful partnership.

Question

Madam Prime Minister, Madam Chancellor, the EU wants to prevent Britain from doing cherry-picking, as they say. The first signals from London seem to hint at that, trying to maintain advantages and reducing disadvantages, for example, in freedom of labour and giving a boost to the single market. Is there no scenario to actually ward off Brexit?

And on Turkey, the EU says a country that reintroduces the death penalty cannot become a member of the European Union, but can such a country be a partner in a pact with the European Union on the refugees?

Chancellor Merkel

Well, I think it is absolutely understandable that only a few days after the referendum, only a few days after a new government was formed in Britain, the government will have to take a moment first and try to seek to identify its interests. And I think its actually to our advantage to have the United Kingdom define its negotiating stance in great detail and clarity and possible to also clearly outline how it sees its future relationship with the European Union. These have to be parallel processes if you like. You cannot completely cut off the bonds and then after a long winding negotiated process come up with how one sees the future relationship. So a good negotiating process and a sensible and constructive one I think is in all of our interests.

So we will wait and for the moment when the United Kingdom invokes this and applies for this and then we will put our guidelines on the table as to how we see the future relationship. I think, as the Prime Minister has said quite repeatedly, we have to look at realities and the reality of the day is that 48% of the citizens of the United Kingdom voted for it but after all voted for remaining but 52% voted for leaving the European Union. And I think that that is the reality of the day that we have to look at.

Now on the refugee pact this EU-Turkey agreement has at its core after all the aim of combatting human trafficking. The fact that people had to confide in traffickers that were ruthless, that were unscrupulous, they paid a lot of money for being smuggled. So our responsibility is to turning this illegal migration into legal migration. This illegality has to be stopped. Right now its working but what this also means is that part and parcel of this agreement is also that on a voluntary basis humanitarian contingents of refugees come in a legal way from Turkey to the European Union. What has always been the basis of this agreement and will remain so is that we have security for the people who are sent back to Turkey and were monitoring this very closely. The UNHCR has been a very important partner in this question and so far I have no indication whatsoever of Turkey not abiding by the agreement. I think at any rate that its a mutual interest that we dont allow people to drown in the Mediterranean Sea every day and that illegality reigns over the Aegean Sea.

There is criticism I know, and we have been very vocal in our criticism. There were many who came out strongly against this military coup. Their rights have to be respected and we will be very vigilant. And I already in a telephone call to the Turkish President was clear in voicing my concerns.

Question

Thank you, Prime Minister, at the centre of your talks with Angela Merkel, no doubt will be how you balance EU trade with immigration. Is it worth sacrificing some of our prosperity to have more control on immigration? And Chancellor Merkel, is it remotely realistic for the UK to expect to keep its trading rights and introduce tighter limits on immigration? And if I may, first impressions matter. Youve just met for the first time, what do you make of each other?

Prime Minister

Well, its very clear to me that one of the messages that the British people gave in their vote that the UK should leave the European Union was that they wanted to see control brought into the movement of people from the European Union into the United Kingdom. And so that of course will be one of the issues that we will be looking at and that we as a government will deliver on for people.

But Im also clear that we want to get the right deal in trade in goods and services for the UK. I

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