BERLIN (Reuters) - Britain needs to climb down from its “high horse” and face the reality that its European Union partners will not allow cherry picking in negotiations on its planned exit from the bloc, a senior German conservative lawmaker said on Thursday.

“Britain is urged to bring a resolute position to the negotiations,” Gunther Krichbaum, chair of the EU affairs committee in the German parliament told Deutschlandfunk radio.

“An exit from the European Union without an agreement will mean an actual border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and the EU wants to avoid this outcome,” he said. “But Britain needs to climb down from the high horse on which it has been sitting and face reality.”

Asked if the EU also needed to climb down from its own high horse, Krichbaum said: “We cannot allow cherry picking. You can do this in a supermarket, where you can pick what you like.”