French President ​Emmanuel Macron said ​on Wednesday that if Britain decided to rejoin ​the European ‌Union ⁠it would be “excellent news” ‌and “a good decision”.

His comments, made ⁠in Madrid during a joint news ​conference with Spain’s ‌Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, came after ‌new British Prime Minister Andy ​Burnham said his country should consider options for its ​future relationship ​with the EU, including ​rejoining the bloc.

Macron said the British had “always been useful in helping us simplify things” when the UK was part of the EU and were “demanding partners”.

“Andy Burnham is right to have this boldness,” he added.

The French president also pointed to the limits of the UK seeking closer ties with the EU while remaining outside the bloc, a decade after the Brexit vote.

“You cannot choose between the freedoms of the union and decide to take what suits us and not the rest,” he said.

Sanchez took a similar position, calling Brexit “a huge loss, both for the British population and for the whole European project”.

If the UK were to seek to rejoin the bloc “then of course Spain would applaud it and open its arms again to a brotherly people”, he added.

Macron also outlined his strategies for addressing what he described as the crisis of democracy and the rise of “extremes,” starting with massive investment in a “stronger Europe”.

At the start of a two-day state visit to Spain on Tuesday, the French president, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, arrived at the Royal Palace in a Rolls-Royce escorted by the Royal Guard on horseback in ceremonial dress.

In the vast cobbled courtyard, the couple was welcomed in the early afternoon by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia – amid the sounds of a military band and cannon salutes.

Source: AFP