British PM should have left letter if he wanted results in Berlin, Paris - German lawmaker

Reuters

21 August 2019 at 4:49 am

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a roundtable on the criminal justice system at 10 Downing Street

BERLIN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson should not have sent his letter urging the European Union to reopen the Brexit divorce deal if he wanted to achieve results in meetings with European leaders, a senior German conservative said on Wednesday.

"The letter to @donaldtusk is not a serious offer, and @BorisJohnson knows it", Norbert Roettgen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said in a tweet. Donald Tusk is European Council President.

Roettgen's tweet came hours before Johnson is due to arrive in Berlin to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Johnson is due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday.

Johnson is set to tell Merkel that unless she agrees to change the Brexit deal, Britain will leave the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal.

Roettgen said on Twitter that Germany sees no room to amend the Withdrawal Agreement as long as no solutions to the Irish border problem are on the table.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Michelle Martin)

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