Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble dismissed comments made by British foreign minister Boris Johnson who on Thursday had called some of the EU’s guiding principles “absolute baloney”.
Johnson told reporters that there was no “automatic trade-off” between free movement and access to the single market.
On Friday Schäuble and his French counterpart, Michel Sapin, swept his contention aside, saying they could send Johnson a copy of the Lisbon treaty and even explain it to him in “good English”.
Asked about the remarks at a news conference in Berlin the next day, Schäuble and Sapin exchanged a quick glance at each other before the German host responded.
“We just looked at each other because we’re used to respecting foreign ministers a lot,” Schäuble said.
“If we need to do more, we will gladly send her majesty’s foreign minister a copy of the Lisbon treaty. Then he can read that there is a certain link between the single market and the four core principles in Europe,” he said.
“I can also say it in English. So if clarification is necessary we can pay a visit and explain this to him in good English,” Schäuble said.
Sapin sophisticated the baloney theme. “There are four freedoms and they cannot be separated. So if we want to make good European paté then there are four freedoms that together make up the paté in question.”
The slighting was the second in just two days. In his Thursday interview he also said that the UK was likely to trigger Article 50 early next year. Downing Street, however, pointed out that PM May is not committed to any specific timeframe.
